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THE VIRILE POWERS 
OF SUPERB MANHOOD 

HOW DEVELOPED, 
HOW LOST: HOW REGAINED 

t^* f£T* 9£r* 



Ry BERNARR A. MACFADDEN 

Editor of " Physical Culture," 

(With to* assistance of Medical and Other Authorities) 



*f?£*»y* 



Copyrighted a 9 00, by 

B. A. MACFADDEN IN U. S. A. 

Entered at Stationers Hall, London, England. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



i2r* %p* *&* 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

PHYSICAL CULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Townsend Building, 25th St. & Broadway 

NE^ YORK, U. S. A* 



.Mir 

1300a- 



To assist in stifling that horrible 
curse of prudishness and the igno- 
rance of sex which it entails is the 
object which has in£uenced the writ- 
ing of this book. 



To all those whose souls and 
bodies are tortured with weakness 
because of the criminal neglect of 
prudish parents, or because of their 
own indiscretions or excesses result- 
ing from ignorance of sex, this book 
is most respectfully dedicated. 



Do not he satisfied with mediocrity: 
Push onward and upward. If you are 
not strong, if you have not the energy ; 
the ambition, the power, which lead 
one above the prosaic, the common- 
place, develop it now. Make up your 
mind that strength and health of a high 
degree shall be yours, and work for this 
end with determination and persistence y 
and superb physical powers will be 
your glorious reward, 



PREFACE. 



Numerous books have been written on 
the subject treated herein, but no one 
gives sufficient practical knowledge to 
enable the average reader to apply the 
necessary treatment required in his own 
case. 

The writer has endeavored to supply 
this need. He has purposely refrained 
from all technical phrases, and the con- 
tents have been abbreviated as much as 
possible. 

It is the writer's desire to furnish the 
greatest amount of information in the few- 
est possible words. He is of the opinion 
that there are thousands, and perhaps 
millions, of boys, young men, and even old 
men, whose powers, mental, physical and 
sexual, are fast declining because of the 
need of knowledge -which can be supplied 
here, and he firmly and honestly believes 
that the contents of this work will do more 



6 



PREFACE. 



to elevate, ennoble and strengthen its 
readers than any other influence of a simi- 
lar character. It will help them to be men 
— strong, virile, superb — and the first duty 
of every male human adult is to be a man. 
All other requirements should be subordi- 
nate to this. You cannot build a house 
without a foundation to rest upon, and 
virile manhood is the foundation upon 
which must rest all the results that accrue 
from education and the refining influences 
of civilized life. In other words, if you do 
not possess this virile manhood your im- 
perative duty is to strive for its acquire- 
ment, even if necessary for the time being 
to sacrifice every other purpose in life. 
For if you are not a man, you are nothing 
but a nonentity ! A cipher ! And as long 
as you remain in this emasculated condi- 
tion, your powers and capacities in every 
way "will be bound by your weakened 
condition. 

The writer has pointed ©ut the way to 
acquire and retain these much desired 



PREFACE. 7 

powers. It lies with you. Is the reward 
a sufficient recompense ? If so, begin the 
work prescribed here at once, for he is no 
miracle worker. He does not offer you 
powers, worth more than all the money in 
the universe, in a few dollars' worth of 
powders or pills. You must work for such 
rewards. There is nothing on earth of real 
value which is acquired without labor, 
and the powers of manhood are no excep- 
tion to this rule. You must bring about 
your own cure. 

The writer desires to say in conclusion, 
that it is impossible for him to give special 
advice in individual cases. If this book is 
carefully studied there should be abso- 
lutely no need of this. He has found, 
usually, that those who desire special 
advice, simply wish to avoid the study 
necessary in forming accurate conclusions 
as to the proper treatment in their cases. 
He has endeavored to meet every possible 
contingency that will appear in ordinary 
•ases, and though he is aware that every- 



o PREFACE. 

one is usually under the impression that 
his case is far from agreeing with the 
ordinary, still careful study will usually 
reveal no features essentially different. 

You should study up your own case and 
thus be able to answer yourown questions; 
and it will be to your advantage in the end 
to do this, because you will be following 
conclusions that are the product of your 
own reasoning, and if they are wrong the 
results will soon show it, and then, if 
puzzled, you can go to others to solve your 
problems. 

Bernarr Macfadden. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I it 

The Importance of Virile Manhood. 

CHAPTER II 16 

Causes of Loss of Manhood. 

CHAPTER III 21 

Masturbation. 

CHAPTER IV 33 

Sexual Excesses. 

CHAPTER V 41 

Night Losses and Other Drains Upon Vital 
Powers. 

CHAPTER VI 51 

Promiscuous Intercourse. 

CHAPTER VII 57 

Tobacco — Its Destructive Effect on Sexual 
Powers, 

CHAPTER VIII 63 

The Destructive Effects of Alcohol and Other 
Stimulants. 

CHAPTER IX 68 

Electric Belt Fake. 

CHAPTER X 71 

The Influence of Absolute Continence. 

CHAPTER XI 82 

Why Marriage Sometimes Wrecks. 

CHAPTER XII 103 

Sexual Annihilation or Starvation. 

CHAPTER XIII io6 

Complete Impotence from Old Age and Other 
Causes. 

CHAPTER XIV no 

Undeveloped or Wasted Organs. 

CHAPTER XV 113 

Varicocele* 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVI 115 

Methods of Treatment. 

CHAPTER XVII 119 

System of Exercise for Building Vital and 
Sexual Power. 

CHAPTER XVIII 135 

Special Course of Exercises. 

CHAPTER XIX. i 4 [ 

The Walk Tonic. 
CHAPTER XX 144 

Diet. 
CHAPTER XXI 154 

Bathing. 
CHAPTER XXII 161 

Importance of Pure Air. 

CHAPTER XXIII 167 

Mental Influence. 

CHAPTER XXIV 172 

Constipation. 
CHAPTER XXV 176 

Abbreviated General Instructions for Building 
Nervous and Sexual Power. 

CHAPTER XXVI , 178 

Diseases of Men. 

CHAPTER XXVII 182 

Gonorrhea. 

CHAPTER XXVIII 194 

Gleet, 
CHAPTER XXIX 198 

Stricture of the Urethra. 

CHAPTER XXX 201 

Chancroid (sometimes called Soft Chancre). 

CHAPTER XXXI 208 

Buboes. 

CHAPTER XXXII 213 

Syphilis. 
CHAPTER XXXIII 221 

Can Syphilis be Entirely Cured ? 

CHAPTER XXXIV 230 

Treatment Advised. 



11 



Chapter I. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRILE 
MANHOOD. 



WHERE KNOWLEDGE BECOMES A CURSE. 

Man, the king of all animals, still grovels 
in the dust and mire of ignorance, and even 
his own boasted knowledge often turns and 
bites, and stings and enervates, and at times 
even destroys him. Knowledge of evil with- 
out the antidote of knowing its vile and de- 
structive influence, is a condition where 
knowledge becomes a curse. Knowledge of 
the momentary pleasures which can be ob- 
tained by sexual indulgences, without the 
knowledge of their terrible deleterious in- 
fluence under certain unnatural conditions, 
is one of the greatest causes of physical weak- 
ness, and the pain, unhappiness and disease 
that accompany this abnormal condition. 

The sexual power of a man indicates with 
marvelous accuracy his general physical and 
mental condition. It is the barometer of the 
physical and nervous organism. 



12 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

INTENSE ENTHUSIASM INSPIRED BY VIRILE 
POWERS. 

The fiery ardor of a patriot, the intense 
ambition of an enthusiast, the inspiration 
that influences noble deeds of valor, the 
sacrificial spirit that has time and time again 
caused the world to ring with praises of 
some hero, all spring from the same nervous 
energy which supplies the power of sex, the 
power of manhood. 

Name any man famous in the world of 
literature, of art, or of science, and in nearly 
every instance he will be found to possess evi- 
dence of strong virility. The nervous energy, 
so necessary to the enormous labor which 
brought his success, was the same power that 
controlled his sexual instinct. 

"Sexuality has been strongly marked in 
all the great men who have risen to eminence 
in all departments of life ; without it man 
would be mean, selfish, sordid and ungracious 
to his fellowmen and uncivil to womankind. 
Were it not for this nature which God has 
implanted in our being, no man would desire 
to provide for the support of another indi- 
vidual, or enter into a relation which would 



IMPORTANCE OF VERILE MANHOOD. 13 

likely impose upon him the necessity of 
supporting a family of dependent and grow- 
ing children. No man becomes affable, 
gracious and considerate to women until he 
is renderd so by the awakening of his sexual 
nature and the quickening of that within 
him, which, when held under proper disci- 
pline and control, renders him noble and 
unselfish. " — Sylvanus Stall, D.D. 

CLOSE RELATIONSHIP OF SEXUAL AND PHYSI- 
CAL HEALTH. 

The great importance of strong sexual 
powers cannot be too strongly emphasized. 
Their influence on life is marvelous. If a 
fine, vigorous man acquires a complaint that 
weakens his sexual organs, his powers in 
every way will begin to decline — his muscles 
will grow weaker, his nerves will be affected, 
and unless a change is quickly made, he will 
soon become a physical wreck. The nervous, 
sexual, muscular and vital forces are so 
closely interwoven that what affects one 
always influences the others in a similar 
manner. As the muscles are developed and 
strengthened the nervous and other powers 



14 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

are favorably influenced if wisely used. 
The nervous forces depend upon a normal 
circulation of the blood for their sustenance. 
Muscular exercise of some kind is absolutely 
necessary to functional activity of the entire 
circulatory system. 

The mental influence of a strong sexual 
instinct is seen in all male animals as well as 
man. It elevates, thrills one with energy, 
with powers, and no one can for an instant 
question the conclusion that strength in this 
way gives a man more power in every walk 
of life. 

PERFECT SEXUAL POWERS GIVEN ONLY TO 
THE BEST. 

It is one of Nature's unfailing laws that 
the best of her species shall possess the 
greatest powers of transmitting their kind ; 
and who can for one instant question the 
conclusion that vigorous sexual powers, 
temperately and legitimately used, actually 
brighten and strengthen a man's every 
faculty, elevate and inspire his every 
ambition, giving him greater influence and 
capacity for anything he may attempt in 



IMPORTANCE ©F VERILE MANHOOD. 15 

life? But few men by their own efforts 
have ever accomplished anything of value in 
life who were not gifted also with a strong 
sexual instinct. 

SEXUAL POWER INDICATES CAPACITY. 

The importance of retaining the sexual 
power, of using it wisely and temperately, 
cannot be over-estimated. It is paramount. 
Lose your sexual power, lose the power to 
reproduce your species, and, according to 
the laws of nature, your days of usefulness 
are past, and decay and death will soon over- 
take you. 

Impotence sexually means impotence in 
everything, impotence mentally, physically, 
socially, etc. Your powers are fast waning 
— you might just as well be laid away with- 
out further notice. 



16 



Chapter II. 



CAUSES OF LOSS OF MANHOOD. 



IGNORANCE AND PRUDISHNESS PRIMARY 
CAUSES. 

The causes are various, but unquestionably 
the great primary causes are ignorance and 
the prudishness which it engenders. 

Ignorance of the facts in reference to the 
sexual instinct that should be as plain as the 
noonday sun to every human being, this, 
together with lack of knowledge of the great 
laws of health, so necessary in order to build 
vigor and symmetry of body, have resulted in 
filling civilized countries with a host of 
pigmy men. Immediately after birth they 
come in contact with abnormal influences. 
They are encumbered with clothing that dis- 
courages rather than encourages muscular 
movements, they are compelled to breathe 
foul air when the weather is cold ; they are 
always overfed; the bottle often does duty 
for the female breast, and they come in con- 
tact with all sorts of conditions that tend to 



CAUSES OF LOSS OP MANHOOD. 17 

depreciate vitality. Of course over half are 
killed by all this, and those that survive are 
greatly weakened, and never attain the 
superb manhood that should be their inalien- 
able right. 

ABNORMAL CONDITIONS THAT CONFRONT 
ALL BOYS. 

From the ages of six to fourteen years, the 
disgusting and depraved secrecy maintained 
in all sexual subjects arouses a boy's curiosity, 
and he finally discovers through evil com- 
panions, or by accident, that horrible curse, 
MASTURBATION. Vitality may have 
struggled for the mastery before, but now it 
has an enemy with which it literally has no 
chance. (See chapter on Masturbation.) 
When a boy finally escapes from the clutches 
of this Gorgon evil— though many never 
escape — he finds that he is cursed with night 
losses that seem to waste his vitality almost 
as speedily as the previous evil. (See chapter 
on Night Losses and Other Drains upon Vital 
Powers.) He usually escapes from this with 
his life, and then is confronted with promis- 
cuous intercourse, as practiced almost uni- 



18 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

versally among young men in all civilized 
countries. (See chapter on Promiscuous In- 
tercourse.) This habit is not practiced long 
without severe suffering. Some one of the 
diseases which is the terrible penalty for this 
plain infraction of Nature's laws is sure to be 
contracted. Then the torture of body and of 
mind is terrible. Visions of complete loss of 
manhood confront him. He may have had 
dreams of a home, surrounded by a loving 
wife, and happy, beautiful children. He 
realizes with stinging keenness the fact that 
these diseases may forever destroy the pos- 
sibility of the realization of this beautiful 
dream. (See chapter on these diseases.) 
Though many fall by the wayside, the major- 
ity get through these last-named contamina- 
ting conditions with enough vital and sexual 
strength to look with favor on marriage. 

UNNATURAL MARITAL CONDITIONS. 

The girl that such a man marries is usually 
weak and possesses but little instinct of sex, 
and then sexual excess begins its frightful 
ravages on the physical man. (See chapter 
on Sexual Excess.) 



CAUSES OF LOSS OP MANHOOD. 19 

This sexual excess continues usually until 
impotence intervenes. 

There you have the life of the average 
civilized man ! 

Think you this picture overdrawn? 

Think you that this is civilization ? 

My friends, it is savagery of the lowest, the 
most bestial character. As long as such a 
state of affairs exists, we have no more right 
to the claim of civilization than had those 
effeminate, corrupt and well-fed patricians 
of Ancient Rome whose weakness finally re- 
sulted in the downfall of that grand empire. 

ARE WE, TOO, CONSIGNED TO SPEEDY 
OBLIVION? 

The decay and death of this great people 
convey a lesson that can not be mistaken, 
and the writer maintains with all possible 
emphasis that either existing conditions will 
soon be changed or else the civilization of 
which we boast will meet with swift and 
certain oblivion. 

Think you there is no truth in this state- 
ment? Let the future answer! 

But cry out the truth on the housetops ! 



20 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

A drunkard begins by taking an occasional 
dram which seems of no importance. 

All the vast category of evils enumerated 
here are really made possible by that Gorgon 
horror, Masturbation. The most damnable 
crime ever committed is the neglect of 
parents to warn their children of this evil 
which degrades and demoralizes the physical 
and sexual system, and makes all the terrible 
evils that follow so easily acquired. 

But why go further ? Let us pass on to the 
next chapter and learn more of this horrible 
curse. 



ft 



Chapter III. 
MASTURBATION. 



RESULTS IN FRIGHTFUL LOSS OF MANLY 
POWERS. 

The loss of physical manhood resulting 
from this one evil is horrible to contemplate. 
The laws of sex should be as plain as the 
alphabet to every human being, even from 
early childhood. Boys grow up without a 
word said to them on this important subject. 
They come in contact with the most horrible 
and most destructive evils of life almost be- 
fore the real struggle of life begins. They 
enter it without a word of warning. 

This is the usual condition. Think of it, 
reader. Parents who claim to love their 
children, allow this. 

TERRIBLE ARRAIGNMENT OF THIS EVIL BY 
AN AUTHORITY. 

" Masturbation outrages nature's sexual 
ordinances more than any or all the other 
#rm« ©f sexual sin man can perpetrate 



22 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

and inflicts consequences the most terrible. 
It is man's sin of sins, and vice of vices; 
and has caused incomparably more sexual 
dilapidation, paralysis, and disease, as well 
as demoralization, than all the other sexual 
depravities combined. Neither Christendom 
nor heathendom suffers any evil at all to 
compare with this ; because of its universal- 
ity, and its terrible fatal ravages on body 
and mind ; and because it attacks the young 
idols of our hearts, and hopes of our future 
years. Pile all other evils together — drunk- 
enness upon all cheateries, swindlings, rob- 
beries, and murders ; and tobacco upon both, 
for it is the greatest scourge ; and all sick- 
ness, diseases and pestilences upon all ; and 
war as the cap sheaf of them all — and all 
combined cause not a tithe as much human 
deterioration and misery as does this secret 
Sin."— Prof. O. S. Fowler. 

HANDSOME BOYS WRECKED. 

You see a strong, handsome boy, clear-eyed 
with beautifully-tinted complexion, straight, 
well-formed limbs. You admire his elastic 



MASTURBATION. 23 

step, his manly carriage, his fine, wholesome, 
symmetrically-formed body. 

A year or two, or even a few months, in- 
tervene, and this boy has learned, through 
evil associates, or by accident, this secret 
vice. You see him again, and you may well 
start with pain and surprise at the change. 

Is this the same boy I admired so much ? 
you may exclaim. 

There is no light of health in his eyes 
now ; there is no symmetry to his ungainly 
body, no tint to his sallow cheeks, no grace, 
or manliness in his bearing. He looks old 
and weak, appears bashful and timid, seems 
afraid of your glance. The dark circles 
under his eyes, unshapely appearance of his 
lower limbs, and general decrepit and de- 
moralized condition tell a tale that no lang- 
uage can fittingly depict, — the awful results 
of masturbation. 

IGNORANCE THE CAUSE. 

u The most fruitful source of self-pollution 
is ignorance. If parents were faithful in the 
discharge of their duty to their children in 
this respect, the evil would be generally 



24 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

corrected. The silence of most parents is 
both foolish and culpable. The person who 
leaves his or her child to learn from vicious 
companions in an unhallowed way what they 
should have received from the lips of father 
or mother is guilty of grave neglect, and 
loses the best opportunity of a parent's life 
to establish the mind of the child in purity 
and virtue. " — Sylvanits Stall, D, D. 

Mrs. Alice Lee Moque, herself the mother 
of three boys, in writing upon this subject 
aptly and correctly says: 

" Ignorance is a dreadful sin. In this 
enlightened age we must recognize that 
ignorance is not innocence, and remember 
that to forewarn our boys is to forearm 
them. The truth, properly told, has never 
yet harmed a child; silence, false shame and 
mystery have corrupted the souls and bodies 
of untold millions. " 
you can't warn your boys too soon. 

"Rendered childless by my husband's 
ignorance of these private truths you teach, I 
adopted three sons, whom I determined, by 
forewarning, to save from this vice, and 
warned my eldest on his sixteenth birthday 5 



MASTURBATION. 25 

but was too late, as he owned he had perpe- 
trated it for years. Determined to be in 
ample season with my other two, I warned 
my next youngest at thirteen, never dream- 
ing that it could be practiced before puberty; 
but found myself again too late. Half fran- 
tic with disappointment, and determined to 
make sure of saving my now only undefiled, 
I warned him at ten; but, horrible to relate 
was still too late; for he had already learned 
and perpetrated it !" — The Founder of the Col- 
lege at Cleveland. 

IT BENUMBS THE BRAIN, NERVES, AN© MIND 

"The sin of self-pollution is one of the 
most destructive evils ever practiced by 
fallen man. In many respects it is several 
degrees worse than common whoredom, and 
leaves in its train more awful consequences. 
It excites the powers of nature to undue 
action, and produces violent secretions^ 
which necessarily and speedily exhaust the 
vital principle and energy ; hence the mus- 
cles become flaccid and feeble, the tone and 
natural action of the nerves relaxed and im. 
peded. the mnderstanding tonfused, the 



26 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

memory oblivious, the judgment perverted, 
the will indeterminate and wholly without 
energy to resist ; the eyes appear languishing 
and without expression, and the countenance 
vacant; appetite ceases, for the stomach is 
incapable of performing its proper office; 
nutrition fails; tremors, fears, and terrors 
are generated ; and thus the wretched victim 
drags out a miserable existence, till, super- 
annuated, even before he had time to arrive 
at man's estate, with a mind often debili- 
tated even to a state of idiotism, his worth- 
less body tumbles into the grave, and his 
guilty soul (guilty of self-murder) is hurried 
into the awful presence of its Judge !" — 
Adam Clarke's Com. on Onan. 

A PHYSICIAN'S PLAIN WORDS. 

" These results of masturbation I have 
seen in my own practice — involuntary emis- 
sions, prostration of strength, paralysis of 
the limbs, hysteria, epilepsy, strange nervous 
affections, dyspepsia, hypochondria, spinal 
disease, pain and weakness in the back and 
limbs, costiveness, and, in fine, the long and 
dismal array of gastric, enteric, nervous and 



MASTURBATION. 27 

spinal affections, which are so complicated 
and difficult to manage/* — Dr. J. A. Brown. 

WEAKNESSES AFTER PUBERTY CAUSED BY IT. 

"Many of the ills which come upon the 
young at and after puberty arise from this 
habit, persisted in so as to waste their vital 
energies, and enervate their physical and 
mental powers. Nature designs that this 
drain should be reserved until mature age, 
and even then be made but sparingly. Sturdy 
manhood, in all its vigor, loses its energy, 
and bends under the too frequent expendi- 
ture of this important secretion ; and no age 
or condition will protect a man from the 
danger of unlimited indulgence, though 
legally and naturally exercised. 

"In the young, however, its influence is 
much more seriously felt; and even those 
who have indulged so cautiously as not to 
break down their health or minds, cannot 
know how much their physical energy, 
mental vigor, and moral purity have been 
weakened by this indulgence. No cause 
produces as much insanity. The records of 



28 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

the institutions give an appalling catalogue 
of cases attributed to it." — Dr. Woodward. 

THE WORST OF ALL EVILS. 

Prostitution and intemperance may do 
much to demoralize and destroy the character 
and physique of young men, but unquestion- 
ably at the present day, masturbation causes 
more physical deterioration, more insanity, 
more tendency to crime, than any other one 
evil of this character. It takes boys when 
they are maturing, when the slightest in- 
fluence effects them, we might say all 
through life, and literally vulgarizes, de- 
grades and demoralizes them physically, 
mentally and sexually. 

This terrible crime to civilization, to 
humanity, now being committed by the 
parents and teachers who ignore these sub- 
jects with such studied significance, cannot 
be too strongly condemned. 

ARE WE REALLY CIVILIZED? 

No nation has the slightest claim to true 
civilization when such crimes are daily and 
hourly perpetrated, without even the slightest 
effort being made to stop the terrible $Iaugh= 



MASTURBATION. 2$ 

ter of innocents that results from this most 
base, this most criminal neglect. 

What would you think of a man who 
would unfeelingly stand by a blind child and 
see it walk to the brink of a precipice and 
fall into the depth below ? Where is the dif- 
ference between this inhuman creature and 
a parent or guardian who will stand by and 
see his child innocently, blindly falling into 
the abyss of masturbation, which, though it 
may not mean death, in every case means 
that the victim will be maimed mentally, 
morally and physically for life? Of course 
he often recovers and becomes a good and 
useful citizen, but he would have been better 
and stronger and nobler if not tainted and 
wrecked by such vile influences. 

HARSH NAMES FOR PARENTS. 

There is no name too harsh with which 
one could designate such unfeeling, despic- 
able, prudish parents. The lowest animals 
of the earth protect their own progeny from 
destructive influences, but these creatures, 
dressed in clothes that hide their filthy 
bodies and depraved brains, allow their chil- 



30 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

dren to enter these vile pit-falls without a 
word of protest. If such prudes ever gene- 
rated an original idea, if there has ever been 
a single occasion when humanity has been 
improved, either individually or collectively, 
because of their having lived, the writer 
would like to hear of it. 

PARENTS WITHOUT HEARTS. 

If you are a parent, a guardian, and have 
one atom of truth, of honor, of love in your 
heart, warn your boys — and your girls, too — 
of the terrible evils that they must avoid. 

Neglect this imperative duty, and if there 
is Hell in the other world, you fully deserve 
an important position there, for you have 
assisted in no small way to make a hell on 
this earth for your own child. 

CRIMES OF PARENTS. 

There is no crime more dastardly, that de- 
serves more punishment, than this. Adults 
have some protection against crime. They 
are fully aware of its existence, but children 
look up to and depend on their parents for 
protection, and it would injure them far less 
if they were beaten on the head near unto 



MASTURBATION. 31 

death with a club than it would to allow 
them innocently to acquire and practice this 
secret vice. 

CAUSES MORE MISERY THAN ALL OTHER SEX- 
UAL SINS. 

11 Private fornication causes twenty times 
more misery than any other sexual sin. 
And this is substantially the opinion of all 
who have examined this subject. If a loved 
child must practice either — O merciful God ! 
deliver all from such a dilemma — almost 
as soon let it DIE. Any other cup of bitter- 
ness is less bitter ! Nothing, O fond parent, 
can render your beloved offspring more 
completely wretched." — Prof. O. S. Fowler. 

IS THERE HOPE FOR THE FALLEN? 

Again and again the question is asked, 
" Can the effect of this terrible evil be eradi- 
cated?" A boy can never be the man he 
might have been had the habit never been 
practiced, though he can undoubtedly recover 
from its effects and develop a fine vigorous 
physique if proper efforts are made. To such 
an unfortunate the writer would say : Follow 
stem of exercises illustrated here. Take 



38 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

up all sorts of outdoor exercises. Live in the 
open air as much as you can, and vow wi f .h 
an unflinching determination that you will 
be a man — that you will conquer the terrible 
habit. 

Read carefully all the advice in reference 
to building sexual vigor, and you can depend 
on complete recovery, and upon the acquire- 
ment of a degree of health and strength that 
will be far above the average, though if the 
habit has been practiced very long a certain 
amount of vital and general physical vigor 
has no doubt been sacrificed beyond recall. 






Chapter IV, 
SEXUAL EXCESS. 

ENERVATING EFFECTS. 

Many men appear to think and act as 
though their sexual powers were limitless, 
Week after week, month after month, an<? 
often year after year, they indulge in this 
way to the extreme limit. The ultimate 
result is always serious. The body is like a 
chain which is as strong as its weakest link, 
and when excess of this character becomes 
continuous the general vigor is gradually 
undermined. The muscles lose some of 
their elasticity, firmness and symmetry; the 
various vital organs — stomach, heart, lungs 
— become gradually weaker, and if there is 
any physical defect or a tendency towards 
any disease, the general weakened condition 
of the body enables it easily to develop. 
Thousands of men have died and are still 
dying of consumption and other wasting 
diseases which are made possible because 



84 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

the weakness brought about through sexual 
excess. 

PROCREATION THE AIM OF INTERCOURSE. 

" In nature, sexual intercourse has but one 
aim, and that is procreation. This act, 
which is one of the greatest mysteries of life, 
and should be reverenced as a sacrament, 
should be performed only for the purpose of 
securing offspring. Every other such act, 
or sexual excitement, constitutes vice, under- 
mines health, and is a sacrilege against 
Nature's laws ordained by God Almighty. 
For the purpose of procreation, one act may 
suffice; then, while the fruit is developing, 
and also during the time of nursing, the 
mother should abstain. This state of affairs 
we find with all wild animals." — A. F. Rein- 
hold, Ph. £>., M. D. 

RICHNESS OF THIS VITAL FLUID. 

Excess in this way seems to destroy the 
energies, takes away the ambition. Some 
physiologists claim that one drop of the 
semen is equal to sixty drops of blood. 
Although it would unquestionably be diffi- 
cult to determine accurately the relative 



SEXUAL EXCESS. S5 

value of this vital fluid compared to the 
blood, no one will question its richness 
in vital elements. It contains the very 
essence of a man, for is it not bone of his 
bone, flesh of his flesh ? 

The especial fact to be deplored in connec- 
tion with this character of intemperance is 
that many do not appear to be aware of its 
deleterious effects. 

They begin to decline when addicted to 
excess, and blame it on a cold accidentally 
acquired, or to other senseless causes which 
in no way assisted in bringing about their 
condition. 

MARRY A REAL WOMAN— NOT A WRECK. 

While writing along this line it would be 
well to mention the enormous importance of 
marrying a girl who has sufficient stamina 
to be normal in this way. Many women, be- 
cause of their weakened and general abnor- 
mal condition, are void of all instinct, so 
important in protecting themselves and their 
husbands from these excesses. In every 
normal healthy woman there are periods 
when these intimate relations are repugnant, 



36 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

and Nature created these periods as a protec- 
tion against these excesses. ( See chapter on 
Why Marriage sometimes Wrecks. ) 

Though deplorable, it is nevertheless a 
fact that because of the unnatural conditions, 
corsets, long shirts, etc., etc., which contami- 
nate and deteriorate the bodies of growing 
girls, but few of them grow into normal 
womanhood, possessors of the superfine in- 
stinct so necessary for their own and their 
life-partner's protection against such serious 
excesses. 

LAMENTABLE RESULTS OF MARRYING 
INVALIDS TO-BE. 

" At times, wdiile under the infatuation and 
blinding influences of courtship, a young 
man w T ho fully realizes the physical infirmi- 
ties of the young woman with whom he is 
keeping company, will excuse all her aches 
and ills, and, under the delusion that it will 
be a pleasure to nurse her in her sickness 
and minister to her many infirmities, deliber- 
ately decide upon marriage. If you are in 
love with such a young woman, you cannot 
possibly be more cruel to her than to marry 
her. Let her condition appeal to your mercy; 



SEXUAL EXCESS. 37 

and if you love her, and desire to support 
her, well and good. But never marry her," 
— Sylvanus Stall, D. D. 

Let the warning therefore be plain. If 
a value your own or your future wife's 
happiness, never marry a weak, sickly girl 
Such women have not the slightest right to 
marry. They become in every case a curse to 
themselves and to the man who marries 
them. 

Marriage is first and foremost a physical 
union, and unless there is that stamina, that 
vip*or in each which would indicate their 
ability to perform properly their part of the 
contract, they have not the slightest right to 
enter such a condition. 

EXCESS DEFINED. 

When this subject is broached many 
men will ask what is excess. How often can 
such indulgence be allowed and still keep 
within the bounds of temperance ? No rule 
can be made for everyone. Each man must 
find out for himself, for what would be 
termed excessive in one case might be c 
sidered temperate in another. 



38 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

" Many married people will give them- 
selves up to the embrace daily, often more 
than once, and that for years, But not only 
its frequency, but the manner in which it is 
performed, are so unnatural and studiously 
licentious that the most desperate cases of 
paralysis and epilepsy are frequently the di- 
rect and immediate result. Locomotor ataxia 
and palsy, too, often follow in its wake."— 

A. T. Reinhold, Ph. D., M. D. 

HEALTHY WOMAN CAN ALWAYS TELL. 

" Woman is the final umpire as to its fre- 
quency. Following her lead will usually 
conduct all to matrimonial harmony ; ignor. 
ing it, to discord. Only a healthy one, how- 
ever, will decide right. A husband who tender- 
ly loves a delicate wife will find no difficulty 
in being continent, because he loves her too 
well to subject her to what w^ould be in- 
jurious. Attempts have been made by legis- 
lators and divines to fix definitely a limit to 
the conjugal approaches which should be 
binding upon all, but this is evidently im- 
practicable. Generally speaking the hygienic 
rule is« that after the act the person should 



SEXUAL EXCESS. S9 

feel well and strong, the sleep should be 
sound, and the mind clear. Whenever this 
is not the case, when the limbs feel languid, 
the appetite feeble or capricious, the head 
ache, the intellect dull, and the faculties slug- 
gish, then there certainly is excess, and the 
act should be indulged in more rarely. 
Those who strictly observe these rules will 
need no others, and will incur no danger 
from over-indulgence."— Prof. O. 5. Fowler. 

INSTINCT OR YOUR FEELING CAN JUDGE. 

The best guide, when desirous of knowing 
if you indulge to excess, is your own feel- 
ings. When living under martial conditions 
and you seem to be lacking in energy, when 
your strength seems to be lessening, when 
that " tired feeling " becomes chronic, if you 
are taking precautions to follow the rules 
that demand regular exercise, nourishing, 
wholesome diet, proper bathing, and a 
copious supply of pure air at all times, you 
can at once conclude that sexual excess has 
something to do with your weakness. 

Of course, the remedy under these circum- 
stances is first, temperance, preferably entire 
abstinence in all sexual relations. 



40 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

In addition to this every possible natural 
means for building up the physical forces, as 
advised further along in this book, must be 
regularly used. 



41 



Chapter V. 

NIGHT LOSSES AND OTHER DRAINS 
UPON VITAL POWERS. 



ERRONEOUS BELIEF IN REFERENCE TO THIS. 

One of the most deplorable errors that the 
average young man has to contend with at 
the present time is the belief that night 
losses are always productive of serious ail- 
ments, that they are a sign of approaching 
senility, or presage insanity and other serious 
results. Nothing could be further from the 
truth. It would be difficult to find a well- 
sexed man who had not in one time in his 
life had losses of semen in this way. Under 
normal conditions the emission is simply a 
vent for the discharge of surplus semen and 
should in no way produce any deleterious 
consequences. 

A PHYSICIAN'S WORDS. 

"Great alarm is often expressed by patients 
who suffer in this way ; but I am enabled to 
give them much relief when I mention that 



4=2 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

such emissions, occurring once in every ten 
or fourteen days, are in the nature of a safety 
valve, and are even conducive to health in 
persons who do not take enough exercise, 
and live generously. It would, however, be 
better for the adult to be free even from 
these ; and I feel convinced that in one who 
has not allowed himself to dwell on sexual 
thoughts, but takes strong bodily exercise, 
and lives abstemiously, emissions will either 
not occur, or their occurrence may be looked 
for only very rarely. It is only when the losses 
or escapes take place repeatedly, attended 
by symptoms of prostration, with other ill 
consequences, that the patient should seek 
medical advice." — Dr. Acton. 

Of course where the losses are of frequent 
occurrence they unquestionably depreciate 
the general vital powers, and means should 
be adopted to lessen their frequency. Of the 
means necessary for the accomplishment of 
this we will enter into further along in this 
chapter. 

USUALLY CAUSED BY MASTURBATION. 

These excessive nocturnal losses usually 
follow the habit of masturbation, and practu 



NIGHT LOSSES. 43 

cally result from this evil. A drain is of 
course established if this habit is regularly 
indulged, and when the victim discovers its 
terrible consequences to mind and body and 
regains sufficient strength of will to renounce 
it, the semen that has been used to supply 
this drain continues to accumulate, and the 
amorous desire that' this creates so influences 
the brain during sleep that lascivious dreams 
are produced, which usually result in this 
loss. Where these dreams are followed by a 
feeling of lassitude or extreme weariness, 
dizziness and general weakness, they are 
occurring too frequently, though it is well to 
remember the effect of mind over body, and 
that your belief in the weakening effects of 
these losses may be influencing your feelings 
in this way quite seriously. In other words, 
if you will at once cast aside from your mind 
the belief in the injurious effects of these 
dreams, you may not notice any of the weak- 
ening effects which seem so plain when you 
expect and are searching for signs of them. 

ALL MEN SUFFER FROM SIMILAR LOSSES. 

" But when young men are made to believe 
that any and all emissions are certain and 



44 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

unmistakable indications of coming im- 
becility, the statement is both preposterous 
and absurd. Such a statement is wholly 
unreliable and misleading. After years of 
acquaintance with men in all periods of life, 
and after having spoken freely with many 
upon the subject, the writer is frank to con- 
fess that he has yet to meet the first male of 
the human race, who has passed the period 
of puberty and who has attained to early 
manhood, who has not at some time had 
such emissions, and from whom an undue 
accumulation of sexual fluid has not passed 
during hours of sleep in a dream of a more 
or less amorous nature. 

We have also carefully examined medical 
authorities upon this subject, and find that 
all reliable writers are agreed that such loss 
of semen, if not occurring at too frequent 
intervals, is not only quite general, but 
seemingly natural." — Sylvanus Stall, D,D, 

MEDICAL FAKIRS AND THEIR PREY. 

This idea that these losses are always in- 
jurious, and that they never occur under any 
circumstances when enjoying prefectly nor* 



NIGHT LOSSES. ±5 

mal state, has been spread broadcast by the 
patent-medicine fakirs, who live by robbing 
the public just as leeches feast on the vitality 
of other animals. 

Think of the vast sums annually spent for 
their various remedies, which are supposed 
to bring to the wasted victims of these com- 
plaints that strength and virility which have 
been frittered away. The amount would al- 
most pay the national debt. And do these 
remedies cure ? Do they ever benefit ? The 
manufacturers of these base impositions no 
doubt profit by them, but no one else. If 
the evil ended with the fleecing of the 
unwary, the consequence w r ould not be 
serious, but thousands are buoyed w T ith false 
hope after reading of the wonderful cures 
advertised by these frauds, whose proper 
home is in a penitentiary. 

BLIND SEARCH FOR A CURE* 

Because of the belief that these spurious 
remedies are the only available method of 
cure, the victims have no opportunity to be, 
come interested in natural means which 
would bring health and strength in every in- 



46 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

stance where such a result was possible ; and 
naturally they go on, year after year, trying 
one quack remedy after another, until the 
grave opens and ends their miseries. 

MURDERS COMMITTED. 

No cry of murder goes up at the poor vic- 
tim's funeral. He is laid peacefully away 
with loud lamentations and regrets at the 
intervention of Divine Providence. But who 
is to blame for this murder— this poisoning 
by sloY/ degrees of a life that might have been 
useful and prolonged? Enumerate all the 
deaths that occur in a usual serious war 
through diseases and other causes and multi- 
ply it by one hundred, and it w r ould probably 
closely approximate the actual number who 
annually lose their lives through the causes 
mentioned above. We have every precaution 
to protect the weak and the ignorant from 
robbery or assault, but who on this earth are 
protecting the fragile, inexperienced, nerv- 
ous wrecks from being robbed, physically and 
financially, by the quacks and should-be con- 
victs, who hire the space and reputation of 
the most renowed newspapers and periodi- 
cals to assist them in their nefarious business? 



NIGHT LOSSES. 4T 

NEWSPAPERS SUPPLY THEIR COLUMNS TO 
THIEVES 

In one part of a prominent newspaper a 
most terrible arraignment of some trust or 
public enemy will appear, but in the same 
paper, under the head of advertisements, one 
can read the most seductive and insinuating 
offers to those suffering from <4 hidden weak- 
nesses, " etc., etc. The editors and managers 
no doubt wonder how enough victims can 
oe caught to pay for such large advertising 
bills, but somehow they seem to forget that 
these same victims are as capable of suffer- 
ing as those who are injured by the trusts. It 
is the appalling ignorance of the masses on 
these subjects with which every adult should 
be familiar, that enables the blood-suckers to 
ply their trade. Do not under any circum- 
stances allow the fakirs to get you in their 
clutches, 

RULES FOR LESSENING NIGHT LOSSES. 
If you feel that night losses are becoming 
too frequent, adopt the following special 
rules and give particular attention to the 
other rules found in this work, and you can 
depend upon a complete recovery, though 



48 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

remember that it will take time to accom- 
plish this. As to just how often emissions 
must occur in order to be considered too fre- 
quent, it is exceedingly difficult to determine. 
The sexual power of man varies most widely 
in different individuals, and what would be 
considered excess in one might be extreme 
temperance in another. The best guide 
is to be sure that the symptons of weak- 
ness which follows this loss are not in the 
mind, but are an actual physical reality. 
When sure of this you can nearly always de- 
pend on the conclusion that the loss is be- 
coming excessive. 

WHEN LOSSES ARE EXCESSIVE. 

Some writers claim that a loss once 
each week is excessive; others that twice 
each week in some men would not be con- 
sidered so. 

Judge for yourself in your own particuiai 
case, though if the rules here given are 
accurately followed, if there is an excessive 
loss, it will soon begin to decrease. 

Be careful never to cover yourself too 
heavily during sleep. Better wake up cold 
at times than to induce undue warmth. 



NIGHT LOSSES. 49 

Never sleep on your back. If you are in 
the habit of doing this, wear a belt with 
some small article attached against your 
back so that the moment you turn over on 
your back during sleep you will be awak- 
ened. 

CULTIVATE A LOVE FOR COLD WATER. 

Do not under any circumstances neglect 
the practice of gradually inuring yourself 
to the use of cold water morning and even- 
ing, though a complete sitz bath will be 
found of especial advantage after exercise 
on rising. 

Take up regular exercise, though be very 
moderate at first. 

If the exercise is overdone it will tend to 
aggravate your trouble. Deep breathing 
and long walks can especially be com- 
mended. 

Don't over-eat. 

It is a hundred times preferable to eat too 
little than to eat too much, Eat nourishing, 
appetizing foods only. Eat slowly, masti- 
cate thoroughly. 

Keep the bowels regular by using laxative 



gO POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

foods. If this does not suffice, read chapter 
on Constipation and follow suggestions 
given there. 

Don't worry. (Read chapter on Mental 
Influence.) 

Don't crowd your brain with lewd 
thoughts. The more you allow your 
thoughts to dwell on these subjects, the 
more semen is accumulated, and the more 
your trouble will be aggravated. Keep the 
mind busy with some active and interesting 
occupation. 

KEEP THE MIND CLEAN, 

"When the mind is permitted to dwell 
unduly upon sexual subjects, the secretions 
become more rapid than is designed, the 
system is drained, and more injury is done 
by the impure thought that produces this 
result than by the dream which attends the 
emptying of the sacs which are flooded with 
this vital fluid more rapidly than it can be 
re-absorbed for use throughout the entire 
system. Thus it will be seen that the 
purity of the mind is both of primary and 
vital importance"— Sylvanus Stall, D. D. 



51 



Chapter VI. 



PROMISCUOUS INTERCOURSE, 

USUALLY NOTHING BUT LUST. 

No reasoning man who carefully investi- 
gates the subject can avoid condemning 
promiscuous intercourse. In many cases it 
is almost as unnatural as masturbation. 
The woman who allows promiscuous privi- 
leges in this way cares nothing for a man. 
There is absolutely no natural reciprocation 
on the part of the female. His feeling for 
her is nothing more than the lowest, the 
most bestial passion. It is simply lust, lust, 
lust, of the lowest order. The female 
endures the embrace for whatever she may 
gain. Such relations are unnatural and 
therefore productive of both physical and 
mental deterioration. This would be the 
unquestionable result even if no disease is 
acquired, and think of the terrible risk 
incurred in this way ! 

" Promiscuous intercourse leads to gonor- 
rhoea, gleet, syphilis, stricture, diseased off- 



52 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

spring, childlessness, and many other evils. 
Almost the entire civilized race is to-day 
tainted with venereal poison. If we imagine 
vitality divided into equal portions, each 
item may be looked upon as canceled by an 
act of cohabitation. Then it is obvious that 
the more frequent these acts of intercourse, 
the sooner the stock of vital power must be 
exhausted.'— A. R Reinhold, Ph. D. y M. D. 

TERRIBLE PENALTIES FOR THIS SIN. 

Nature has set a price upon fornication 
that none can afford to give. She takes her 
pay in physical power, in health. It is 
against her laws, and those who break the 
laws must pay the price. 

No man who makes a habit of visiting this 
class of women ever escapes for long, and 
some of the diseases are of the most loath- 
some character. Go to any of the hospitals 
and see the myriads of sufferers from these 
ailments that actually at times eat the flesh 
from the bones, leaving great open sores 
that are healed only by death. 

CAUSES LOATHSOME VENEREAL DISEASES. 

'• God in nature condemns sexual depravi- 
ties as the most utterly abominable in His 



PROMISCUOUS INTERCOURSE. 53 

holy sight of all others, and affixes to them 
the seal of His uttermost reprobation, by 
appending to them pains and penalties more 
painful, and loathsomeness more disgusting 
than to any other sins and vices. Natural 
expression always tells the truth, and noth- 
ing but the truth, though by no means the 
whole truth here, for that is impossible, even 
by this Heaven's most eloquent orator. A 
strong man or woman slowly atoning, by 
lingering, agonizing moments, hours, days 
and months, till a protracted death finally 
closes upon the scene, the author never has 
seen, never desires to see. Other pens, more 
vivid, have attempted this painful descrip- 
tion, only confessedly to fall far short of its 
awful realities. What feverish days! What 
restless nights ! What agonizing aches and 
pains in every bone, and muscle, and nerve! 
What eyes rolling and glaring and protrud- 
ing, as if internal agonies were pushing them 
out of their sockets! An awful stench 
nauseates beyond any power of description. 
A putrid human carcass — beast does not, 
cannot suffer this — is livid with poison ' 
Rt: her®, there, everywhere* 



54 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

ejecting excretions how utterly disgusting ! " 
— Prof. Oo 5. Fowler. 

FINE ATHLETES BECOME WRECKS. 

The writer has seen many a strong, fine 
athletic man brought down to a physical 
wreck by these terrible diseases. Even 
gonorrhea, which is usually apparently 
cured in a short time, often brings on 
complications and results in serious loss of 
physical and sexual power. 

FEARFUL WARNING FOR ALL. 

" If men whose abnormal desires lead them 
into the ways of promiscuous intercourse 
could but see some one or more of the vie 
tims to be found at all times in any of the 
large hospitals — the foul, loathsome ulcer; 
the poison eating away gradually, slowly, but 
surely, the flesh; the eyes gone, the nose 
destroyed, giving the face a most hideous 
aspect; the bones of the skull eaten, exposing 
the brain; the mark of manhood obliterated 
altogether, a loathsome, living death — they 
would think twice before venturing into the 
mashes of feer whos§ 4 feet take hold on fed! 






PROMISCUOUS INTERCOURSE. 55 

The breaking of no other human law entails 
on the wrong-doer such fearfully prompt, 
repulsive and incurable penalties as does the 
unnatural one of miscellaneous intercourse. 
The very first transgression ofttimes devel 
ops the poison of syphilis, the non-desire for 
which may be inferred from what one of the 
most distinguished of French surgeons has 
said: * I would not have a chancre of the size 
of a pin's head on my person for all Paris/ M 
— John Cowan, M. D. 

DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF USUAL TREATMENT 

Any of these sexual diseases unquestion- 
ably causes a serious loss of sexual strength, 
not only on account of the general physical 
decline that accompanies and follows them, 
but the ordinary treatment used is often ex- 
tremely harsh (usually far more so than it 
should be) and the strong drugs, ejections, 
etc., that are used to effect a cure, leave 
traces of their weakening influences often 
years after their use has been discontinued. 

Regardless of what opinion may be formed 
as to desirabilty of absolute continence, no 
reasoning process can possibly cause a man 



56 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

to conclude that promiscuous intercourse is 
either beneficial or desirable. This conclu- 
sion cannot be avoided, even if one is labor- 
ing under the delusion that he is too careful 
to acquire any of the terrible diseases that 
are the main penalties for the infraction of 
these laws, 



57 



Chapter VII 



TOBACCO— ITS DESTRUCTIVE 
EFFECT ON SEXUAL POWERS. 

SOMETIMES DIRECT CAUSE OF IMPOTENCE. 

There is a uniformity of opinion among 
all writers on this subject as to the effects of 
tobacco on sexual powers. The writer has 
heard of numerous cases where it has actu- 
ally been the direct cause of impotence. 
One particular case is remembered where 
a patient was being treated for entire loss of 
power in this way. The physician had pre- 
scribed the usual remedies, and had been 
treating the patient for some time without 
any sign of improvement. One day while 
reading a work on the evil results of smoking, 
he was quite surprised to note the special 
injury which the author of the work claimed 
that smoking produced on the sexual 
powers. He, of course, naturally realized 
that the influence of smoking was far from 
desirable, but did not consider it as injurious 



58 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

as the author claimed. He remembered 
that the patient whom he was then treating 
was a great smoker, and that he had told 
him on one or two occasions that his im- 
provement might be more rapid if he would 
be more moderate in this habit. 

ACTUAL EXPERIMENTS PROVED ITS EFFECTS. 

The author's theories appealed to him 
and he determined to enjoin entire absti- 
nence from smoking upon his patient and to 
watch the result. In less than a month the 
patient's long-lost powers returned and the 
physician allowed him to resume his cigars. 
The result was that in a short time his 
old trouble appeared, and ultimately he 
found that cigars must be avoided or else a 
chronic condition of impotence would con- 
tinue. 

INFLUENCE ON THE NERVES. 

The use of tobacco, either smoking or 
chewing, has an enormous influence on the 
nervous system. Nothing proves this so 
emphatically as the intense, almost over- 
powering, craving which is induced after the 
H80 of th* w©ed becomes a habit It fee- 



TOBACCO. 59 

numbs and destroys the finer delicacy of the 
nerves. Any influence on the general 
nervous system of course affects the organs 
of sex directly, for, as explained before, they 
are a part of the nervous system. 

DECREASES STRENGTH AND SENSITIVENESS 
OF EVERY POWER. 

" To one who has not attained his entire 
growth, the use of tobacco stunts the body 
and dwarfs the muscles, making them flabby 
and weak. When used in excess, tobacco 
greatly affects the vision. Physicians who 
make the treatment of the eye a specialty 
tell us that when they use the magnifying 
lens, and throw the light in upon the retina 
of the eye. they can tell immediately when 
one is addicted to the excessive use of 
tobacco. It also deadens the hearing, greatly 
affects the heart, producing palpitation, and 
when used regularly, in large quantities, 
results in producing what is called " tobacco 
heart." The results of either smoking or 
chewing can often be noticed in its effects 
upon the nerves, rendering the individual 
- servous asd irritable, eves to s 



60 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

provocation. Surgeons tell us that their 
experience in the operating room has de- 
veloped the fact that men who are addicted 
to the use of tobacco quite generally suffer a 
lack of manly fortitude, and are noticeably 
cowardly under the severe trial of a surgical 
operation. Tobacco discolors the teeth, 
makes the breath offensive, excites the 
glands which secrete the saliva, and tends to 
produce dyspepsia, low spirits, a pale face, 
and an emaciated form. It also tends to 
produce dizziness, rush of blood to the head, 
palpitation of the heart, loss of memory, and 
a diseased condition of the mouth. Such 
results have been noted in the death of 
prominent persons, such as General Grant* 
and many others." — Sylvanus Stall, D. D. 

DESTROYS FINER DELICACY OF THE NERVES. 

Smoking, or the use of tobacco in any form, 
therefore, must be avoided if the highest de- 
gree of strength and delicacy of the nerves 
are desired. This nervous vigor carries with 
it all the intensity and strength of superb 
sexual power, and any deteriorating influ^ 
111 similarly affect this power 5 



TOBACCO. 61 

It is also a well-known fact that smoking 
has a weakening influence upon the entire 
physical organism. Numerous instances 
have occurred where it was proven to be the 
direct cause of serious digestive troubles. 
But the most stubborn argument against the 
use of tobacco is the fact that all athletes in 
training entirely avoid it. No matter how 
much they have been addicted to the habit, 
always when the time arrives for them to 
begin the work which is to build the highest 
degree of health and strength, smoking is 
immediately and absolutely tabooed. Its 
effect on endurance is most marked, as a 
smoker, just as a hard drinker, after one or 
two strenuous efforts is usually entirely ex- 
hausted. 

HOW TO BREAK THE HABIT, 

It is an easy matter to break the habit if 
the same method is adopted as advised fox 
curing the liquor habit — that is, gradually 
to lessen the use day by day. (See chaptei 
on Alcohol and Other Stimulants — Theii 
Destructive Effects.) 

The practice, too, of following accurately 



62 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD, 

in detail the instructions for building up the 
nervous and muscular powers is of just as 
much importance in ridding one of this 
habit as in the cure of the alcohol habit, and 
if you desire to be young again, if you desire 
to experience the joys, elasticity and in- 
tensity that accompany the powers and 
exuberance of extreme virility, the use of 
tobacco must positively be avoided, 



63 



Chapter VIIL 



THE DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF 
ALCOHOL AND OTHER STIMULANTS 



HEALTH AND SEXUAL VIGOR CO-EXISTENT. 

" Along with sexual health and calmness 
go good general health and general quiet- 
ness of the nerves. Nothing is so detrimen- 
tal to this condition as the use of stimulants 
and narcotics/' — Prof. O. S. Fowler. 

Next to sexual excess or kindred unnatural 
drains the greatest cause of impotence is 
unquestionably the use of alcohol and other 
stimulants, which act like a spur on every 
organ of the body. 

No true strength can ever be produced by 
any stimulant. It is always false strength, 
and is created at the expense of vital power, 
and really assists just that much in lessen- 
ing the true strength of all parts of the 
body. 

ALCOHOL LESSENS SEXUAL POWER. 

"It is scarcely necessary that we should 
say anything about the injurious effects of 



64 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

liquors of all kinds upon the reproductive 
organs. It is well known that drunkards 
and tipplers are easily robbed of sexual 
power. The ancient proverb says, ' Venus 
is drowned in Bacchus.' Shakespeare aptly 
displays his marvelous range of informa- 
tion in the play ' Macbeth/ where the porter 
says to Macduff, ' Drinking provokes the 
desire, but it takes away the performance; it 
makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, 
and it takes him off; it persuades him, and it 
disheartens him/ etc. Manliness and virile 
power in their best development are impos- 
sible to those who use liquor of any kind in 
any quantity/' — Sylvanus Stall, D. D. 

Physical vigor and sexual vigor are com- 
panions. You will nearly always find them 
together in the same person. Anything 
that tends to build up one will increase the 
other in power. Therefore take a lesson 
from prize-fighters and all other athletes in 
training for a contest, which means training 
to reach the highest degree of health, and 
leave all stimulants absolutely alone. 



ALCOHOL. 65 

EASY METHOD FOR BREAKING THE HABIT. 

Of course, if you are in the habit of 
taking a certain amount of alcoholic liquors 
each day, the writer does not ask that you 
immediately cease this indulgence, though if 
one is possessed of the necessary will-power 
to do this recovery will be much quicker 
because of the abstinence. 

This method, however, requires great 
strength of will, and is not by any means 
necessary. You can be cured without suf- 
fering from this wild craving. 

The writer will tell you just how it can be 
done. 

First take up the method of treatment 
advised here. Read very, very carefully the 
chapter on Diet; follow accurately the in- 
structions as to exercise, bathing, clothing, 
fresh air, etc., etc. 

After you have begun to follow these rules 
gradually lessen by one every day or two 
the number of daily drinks. When you are 
taking only one each day, try to make it one 
every other day, then one every third day, 
after which you will probably find no diffi- 
culty in leaving it alone altogether, Th§ 



66 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

desire for a stimulant of any kind always 
indicates a lowered condition of the general 
health, and under the influence of natural 
means for building up the physical forces 
but little difficulty will be found in breaking 
the stimulant habit if the required efforts 
are made. The great importance of using 
infinite care never to over-eat, and not to eat 
at any time unless very hungry, cannot be 
too strongly emphasized in this trouble. 

OVER-EATING PRODUCES CRAVINGS FOR A 
STIMULANT. 

One of the greatest causes of the craving for 
a stimulant is over-eating, and this fact must 
be clearly understood if you are desirous of 
ridding yourself of this slavery. Of course, 
the moderate use of alcohol can be continued 
and a certain amount of benefit will be 
secured by following the exercises and other 
advice found here, but if you desire all the 
intensity and power of the emotional and sex- 
ual nature that you will no doubt remember 
to have possessed when in fullness of early 
youth the stimulant habit must be abso- 
lutely avoided. You cannot acquire all the 



ALCOHOL. 6T 

marvelous delicacy and intensity of this 
superb power unless its benumbing influence 
is totally withdrawn. 

44 The use of liquor destroys health, dis- 
figures the body, ruins the nervous system, 
dethrones the reason, produces insanity, 
becomes the parent of idiocy ; it blunts the 
finer feelings and sensibilities; it fills our 
poor-houses with paupers and crowds our 
prisons with criminals ; it breaks the hearts 
of parents and pauperizes helpless women 
and innocent children; it leads to vice and 
violence, and plunges its victims into tem- 
poral and eternal ruin." — Sylvanus Stall, D.D. 



68 



Chapter IX. 



ELECTRIC-BELT FAKE. 



ABSOLUTELY NO MERIT IN THIS MEANS. 

Unquestionably the use of patent medicines 
is gradually declining. The public has 
been deceived and robbed of money and 
health so much by these rank fakes that it is 
beginning gradually to lose faith in the 
ridiculous claims of cures made by the pro- 
prietors of these so-called remedies. But 
with the decline of the use of this means of 
cure there has arisen a " do-nothing " cure, 
which, in the form of electric belts, though 
not as bad as many harmful drugs, is still 
dangerous, for the reason that it lulls the 
sufferer into false security, by impressing 
him with the idea that he is " doing some- 
thing " for his ailment. These electric belt 
fakirs are up to date. Nearly every one of 
their conspicuous advertisements contain 
large, artistically drawn figures of athletic 
men in a physical condition that no electric 



ELECTRIC-BELT FAKE. 69 

belt could assist, even in the slightest degree, 
to bring about. 

RIDICULOUS CLAIMS OF CURES. 

The various owners of these fake cures 
usually make the same ridiculous claims for 
their belts as are made by patent-medicine 
venders, namely, that the mere use of their 
appliance will effect a cure, that the disease, 
which in every case is brought about by the 
violation of the great health laws, can be 
remedied by merely applying their belts. 
According to their claims, there is no need 
to give the slightest attention to the cause of 
the trouble, since the belts will in every case 
produce the desired results ; though some of 
the more intelligent give advice, the follow- 
ing of which often effects a cure, that of 
course, is credited to the electric belt. 

MAY CURE IMAGINARY DISEASES. 

Electric belts never have cured and never 
will cure disease of any kind. They may 
cure many diseases that have existed in the 
imagination only, or they may produce benefit 
by creating a more hopeful mental state, but 
a condition of actual disease can no more be 



70 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

cured by an electric belt than the body can be 
kept clean without water. 

Of course, these belts are mostly recom- 
mended for weakness of the organs of sex, 
and indeed in some cases they may stimulate 
these organs. If this result is produced, im- 
potence is produced just that much quicker, 
because of this unnatural stimulation. There 
is but one proper means of building strength 
in this way, and that is to strengthen the 
entire muscular and nervous system by 
regular exercise. 

WORK FOR RESULTS DESIRED. 

Stop trying to get something for nothing. 
Leave electric belts alone, unless you are 
anxious to rid yourself of money. If you 
want health, strength, the virility, vitality of 
complete, fully developed manhood or 
womanhood, work for this superb condition. 
You can secure it in no other way. 



71 



Chapter X. 



THE INFLUENCE OF ABSOLUTE 
CONTINENCE. 



MEN ARE NOT UNIFORM. 

Man's physical, mental and moral self, 
partly inherited, but principally developed 
by the environments of early life, guides his 
actions and creates the conditions under 
which he must live in order to attain the 
highest degree of physical and mental per- 
fection. No two individuals are exactly alike. 
That which means happiness to one might 
mean most abject misery to another. In 
every species of the animal world outside of 
the human animal there exists a certain 
degree of uniformity in physique and mental- 
ity; but the physical and mental traits and 
powers of men vary as widely as do the quick- 
ness, suppleness and mental acuteness of the 
tiger when compared to the clumsiness, ap- 
parent stupidity, and phlegmatic tempera- 
ment of the hippopotamus. With this fact 



72 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

clear, would any intelligent person dare to 
lay down rules for all to follow indiscrimi- 
nately ? 

CHASTITY IS IT HARMFUL? 

This is a much-mooted question ! The 
average physician will tell you that a man is 
better and stronger if temperate indulgences 
of a proper character are afforded, but most 
of the writers along sexual lines strenuously 
defend one's ability to remain absolutely 
continent all through life -without suffering 
the slightest from this abstinence. 

It is undoubtedly considered desirable to 
remain continent until the fullness of com- 
plete maturity has been reached, and the 
more deficiency there is in those powers 
necessary to a perfect man or woman, the 
less harm there will result from a life of 
absolute continence. Some, no doubt, could 
be continent all their life and still apparent- 
ly enjoy the average powers, but their 
ability thus to deviate from Nature's laws 
with comparative impunity indicates that 
the completeness of fully developed man- 
hood has never been reached— that the pow- 
ers which accompany perfect maturity are 
still dormant. 



INFLUENCE OP ABSOLUTE CONTINENCE. 73 
MANHOOD NEVER REACHED. 

Some men — usually for the lack of physical 
training — never grow to complete manhood. 
They practically remain children all their 
lives — children in mind and in body : weak 
and wavering in their desires and in their 
mental and physical individuality. Can we 
say that one's brain is mature merely because 
it has existed a certain number of years ? Is 
it not rather the training which the brain 
receives that speeds it on to maturity ? It is 
the same with the body, which must be 
trained, strengthened, developed, or it will 
remain childish in its immaturity, and will 
lack to an extreme degree that hardy vigor 
which could easily have been acquired 
through proper physical culture. 

PREMATURELY DEVELOPED SEXUAL POWERS. 

Unquestionably, where a boy grows into 
manhood without the contaminating 
thoughts and deteriorating physical and 
mental influences that result from masturba- 
tion, he can go through life and remain con- 
tinent without suffering any particularly 
noticeable inconvenience, and if mentally 



74 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

satisfied with his condition, can probably enjoy 
nearly the same energy and success that 
might have been his tinder more normal con- 
ditions. We must remember, however, the 
enormous influence of mind over body. A 
man's ability to remain permanently conti 
nent depends largely on his mental condition. 
We must admit that the average human 
being of the present day is born under con- 
ditions that tend to aggravate or develop to 
an abnormal extent the sexual instinct. But 
few marriages are based on right lines. 
Excess is the rule in nearly every case, and 
this sexual excess is usually continued even 
at the time the child is forming and growing 
into life. When this is considered, can one 
wonder at the premature development of the 
sexual instinct in children ? And then comes 
the prudish silence along sexual lines, which 
is so significant to a growing, thinking boy. 
It arouses his curiosity, his interest. This, 
combined with the stimulating diet adopted 
in most civilized homes, soon results in 
calling a boy's most serious attention to this 
sexual part of his nature, and this instinct is 
consequently developed prematurely, caus- 



INFLUENCE OF ABSOLUTE CONTINENCE. 75 

ing him to learn and practice self-abuse 
often long before puberty has been passed. 

CONTINENCE RARE IN THOSE WHO ONCE FALL. 

The writer has seen and heard of instances 
of absolute continence being maintained by 
men who have somehow escaped the condi- 
tions that lead up to self-abuse, but he has 
never yet known a man to lead a perma- 
nently continent life after once contracting 
this habit. It seems that, after a drain 
of this kind upon the system has once 
been established, the sexual passions de- 
velop prematurely, and often become too 
strong to be ignored far earlier in life than 
they would if normal conditions had existed. 
Therefore much of the sexual intemperance 
met with at the present is really due origin- 
ally to the habit of masturbation, which, in 
nine cases out of ten, is made possible by 
the worse than criminal neglect of parents. 

MARRIAGE A NECESSITY. 

Every law of nature emphasizes the neces- 
sity for marriage; animal life everywhere 
gives evidence to this. The highest degree 
of attainable physical perfection can cer- 



76 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

tainly never be acquired unless this condi- 
tion is entered at the proper period of life. 
It may be put off; the day of its consumma- 
tion may be delayed; but it must come before 
the powers of manhood and womanhood are 
on the wane, or one will never be able to 
taste its joys and its benefits in the bright 
ness and strength of full maturity. Success 
ful men nearly always marry; many of them 
are fathers of large families. The founding 
of a home with one for whom there exists a 
reverential love, is usually one of the first 
steps to fame and fortune. It makes one 
feel settled in life: it confines the efforts 
towards a more definite goal. The serious- 
ness and responsibilities of home life give 
strength to the will and steadiness to life's 
aims and to the powers of persistence. 

MENTAL INFLUENCE. 

The environments of life, mental, moral 
and physical, influence to a remarkable 
degree that element in the human mind and 
body which indicates the age or time when 
marriage should be consummated. If deeply 
absorbed in a profession, or in study of any 



INFLUENCE OF ABSOLUTE CONTINENCE. 77 

kind, with no time or desire to allow the 
mind to dwell on anything of a sentimental 
nature, the development of sex is retarded, 
and should this complete absorption long con- 
tinue, this dormant condition may remain all 
through life, though this is a rare occurrence. 
Many become so engrossed in life's duties 
or ambitions that love goes by them year 
after year, until some face, some sympathetic 
individuality, appeals to them, and awakens 
to life their desire for the tenderness and 
companionship of the marital relation. 

WHEN TO MARRY. 

Now the reader may ask, at what age 
should I marry? First, when you have 
attained complete maturity; second, after 
you have met one for whom you have a deep, 
reverential love, which, of course, must be 
returned with the same fervor and strength. 
But suppose I meet no one iov whom I have 
this reverential love? you may ask. Well, 
do not marry until you do experience this. 
Marriage is sanctified, not by tho ceremony 
which binds the pair in a civil contract, but 
by love; it is made holy, reverential, by the 



78 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

intensity and thorough unselfishness of this 
love. When this exalted affection exists, 
and is not degraded and destroyed by being 
animalized, one can be carried on the wave 
of this great happiness far beyond his ordi- 
nary capacities, can be made capable of that 
which, under ordinary circumstances, would 
not only be improbable, but impossible. 
Marriage under these proper conditions 
elevates, ennobles, strengthens, increases the 
self-confidence, and no man, no woman, can 
be developed to all the fullness of attain- 
able power unless he or she enters this 
natural condition. 

SEXUAL APPETITE CANNOT BE IGNORED, 

No one can question the conclusion that 
the sexual appetite was made to be satisfied, 
and there comes a time in the life of every 
man when in order to go onward and upward 
to the attainment of his highest powers, of 
his greatest strength, mental and physical, 
he must be under this perfectly natural 
influence. The age, of course, when this 
occurs differs quite widely, being governed 
largely by one's mental and physical condi- 



INFLUENCE OF ABSOLUTE CONTINENCE. 79 

tion and previous environments. It would 
arrive sooner in a man who had awakened 
his sexual nature to life by abnormal habits, 
or in a man who had come in contact with 
one of the opposite sex who had strongly- 
aroused a desire for the marital relation. 
The sexual appetite is entirely under mental 
control. It will sleep on for years if the 
brain would not call it into life. No reasoner 
along these lines can claim that a normal 
man, in possession of a strongly sexed nature, 
can be absolutely continent during his entire 
life and still acquire all the energy of body 
and power of mind and intensity of emotions 
that might have been his had he provided 
proper legitimate means of following the 
natural desire of his sexual instinct. 

"MAN WAS NOT MADE TO LIVE ALONE. " 

This Biblical maxim is unquestionably 
true in nearly every case, and when its truth 
is disregarded in the life of a normal man, he 
fails to reach his highest degree of attainable 
physical and mental excellence. 

A prominent writer along sexual lines, who 
strenuously maintains that extreme contin- 



80 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

ence carries with, it no evil effects, states that 
"the purest, noblest and most unselfish 
aspirations and purposes derive their strength 
and being from the sweet influences which 
have their beginning and their continuance 
in this power which draws men and women 
in happy and holy wedlock. 

" Where life has been untarnished by the 
social evil, the sexual impulse marches like a 
mighty conqueror, arousing and marshaling 
the mightiest human powers in every depart- 
ment of man's nature. It formulates his 
purpose, quickens his imagination, and calls 
into exercise his united powers in the attain- 
ment of the world's greatest and grandest 
achievements in art, in letters, in inventions, 
in philosophy. It strengthens every faculty, 
quickens every power/' 

SUPERB MANHOOD WILL NOT ALLOW 
CONTINUED CONTINENCE. 

If you are not a man ; if though fully 
grown, you are still a child and always expect 
to remain one ; you can be continent all 
through life without suffering to any appre 
ciable extent. But if you are a man in every 



INFLUENCE OF ABSOLUTE CONTINENCE. 81 

sense, possessing the complete powers of 
body and mind which accompany this state 
of maturity, with all the faculties fully alive, 
with all the emotions tingling with the inten- 
sity of their strength, with the glory and 
ripeness of life, of health and of strength 
stirring your senses, the strength of your 
desire for the marital relation will be too 
strong to resist, and Nature has willed that 
this should be so. 



82 



Chapter XL 

WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES 
WRECKS. 

ALL INTERESTED IN MARRIAGE. 

The attention given marital troubles at 
the present time indicates beyond question 
that it is a subject of paramount interest and 
importance. It appeals to every one. " It 
strikes home," for, although all are not mar- 
ried, there are few who do not look forward 
to this condition — or backward at it. The 
various theories that are advanced as to the 
cause of marital unhappiness by philosophers 
throughout the world would fill thousands of 
volumes. But the writer has often wondered 
how many of these theories expressed the 
real opinions of the writers. He cannot 
believe that they fail to see the real cause of 
marital unhappiness, or that it is their desire 
to deceive, but to his mind it is plain that 
divorces, and by far the larger majority of 
the unhappy marriages, are made possible by 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 83 

abnormal physical conditions and excesses, 
resulting largely from gross ignorance of 
those laws with which every adult human 
being should be familiar. 

MARRIAGE A PHYSICAL UNION. 

Marriage was a well-known and popular 
institution long before the human race ever 
thought of refinement, of civilization and its 
varying environments. The brute husband 
was able to hold his human property by a 
power stronger than all earthly forces ; that 
is, mere physical attraction. Marriage was 
then entirely a physical union. It was con- 
tracted and continued on that basis. There was 
but little ceremony about it — usually none. 
A man desired a woman, and if this desire 
was mutual, he took her. Sometimes even 
her acceptance was not required. This was 
marriage at that time. Though we have ad- 
vanced intellectually — though man has made 
tremendous strides in all that pertains to the 
graces of culture and refinement, a true 
marriage still must have physical attraction 
for its foundation, and is primarily and fun- 
damentally a physical union. 



84 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

PARENTAL LOVE A PHYSICAL INSTINCT. 

Of course, all must admit that there is 
supposed to be something higher in modern 
marriages than mere physical love. There 
is at times a love so intense, so exalted, that 
it is akin to the worship a religious enthusiast 
is supposed to extend to God ; but all this 
great love is made possible by the previous 
existence of intense physical love. If mar- 
riage could be based on reverential respect, 
or any other regard that has no physical 
aspect, man and man, or woman and woman, 
could marry with the same felicity and pro- 
priety that the sexes are now mated. But 
the mere thought of uniting marriage with 
such conditions is repugnant — and rightly so. 
But is it necessarily a disgrace for marriage 
to be founded on physical attraction ? One 
of the most admirable traits in the human 
character is the love of a mother for her 
child, and the reader may be shocked when 
we say that such regard is mere animal 
or physical love; for the grandest exhibi- 
tion of the sacrificial spirit of parental love 
can be found among the lower animals. An 
animal that is as timid as a hare, under ordin- 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 85 

ary circumstances, will often fight with the 
frenzy of a man-eating tiger when its young 
are to be protected. Therefore, why belittle 
animal love ? In its noblest form it is one 
of the grandest of all human passions or 
human instincts. 

PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THOSE ENTERING 
MATRIMONY. 

Admitting that marriage is fundamentally 
a physical institution, that whatever the ex- 
alted height of the regard existing between 
the contracting parties, it is made possible 
first by physical attraction, then call to mind 
the average physical condition of those who 
have entered, and are still entering, the holy 
bonds of matrimony. When such facts are 
viewed, the great wonder is not why there 
are so few, but why there are so many happy 
marriages under such abnormal conditions. 
Although the men are far from the physical 
standard that they should approximate, the 
principal fault is to be found in the female 
sex, for as far as the marital relations are 
concerned, it is the woman who should have 
control, and should be blessed with that phy= 



86 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

sical excellence, which will supply the finer 
instincts essential under such circumstances. 

GREAT PHYSICAL DEFICIENCY OF WOMAN. 

The female human animal should be as 
strong in proportion to the male as is the 
female of lower animals. That the average 
woman falls far below this standard, no one 
will deny. The female cat, dog, horse or 
lion is but little weaker than the male of 
their own species, and in a race can usually 
run about as fast as the male. Woman should 
be as strong in comparison with man. 

" Our young women, how miserably sexed, 
physically. Few are two-thirds grown. Most 
are dwarfed, rendered too small to be of 
much practical account, by excessive brain 
and deficient bodily action. Scan the forms 
of these pocket Venuses. Nearly all are 
deficient in bust and pelvis, meagre in face 
and limb, narrow and round-shouldered, 
humpbacked, crooked-backed, stooping, too 
fat, unless too lean, with their breast bones 
caved in, short ribs meeting or overlapping, 
bowels small or knotted; faces painted, besides. 
Wk&t a damaging confession that they need 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 87 

to paint ? Yet how awfully they look with- 
out, and even with? And use cologne in 
addition, thus telling all within smelling 
distance that they lack that balmy perfume 
which is coincident with sexuality. ONE- 
FOURTH HAVE CROOKED SPINES."— 
Prof. O. S. Fowler. 

PHYSICAL WEAKNESS CAUSS OF MARITAL 
MISERIES. 

The lack of physical excellence, more 
especially among women, is unquestionably 
one of the greatest causes of marital un- 
happiness. Although men are supposed to 
select their wives, woman in reality does the 
selecting, and if all her physical forces are not 
developed to their full completeness, she has 
not the acuteness of discrimination in sexual 
selection that she would possess under more 
normal conditions. Hence she often selects 
a man for a husband, not because she loves 
him with all the devotion, intensity and 
power that should accompany every true 
marriage, but because he will enable her t© 
advance socially, or to satisfy other ambi- 
tious, In an insipid way, she may believe 



88 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

that she loves some other man more than 
the one she marries, but in her eyes he may 
not be her equal, or may not be able to give 
her the position and influence desired, and 
as the strength, emotions and power of a true 
woman are still dormant in her undeveloped 
body, she is incapable of loving any one to 
any great degree of intensity, and therefore 
does not allow love to influence her choice. 
What pitiable objects such -women are? 
They go through life cold, heartless, pitiless, 
unfeeling creatures. That divine desire of 
every true woman's soul for motherhood, 
for the prattling voices of their own lovely 
children, they never experience. They are 
not women — not men. The world is made 
darker, gloomier, and more severe because 
of their influence at times, but rarely, if 
ever, is it made better. 



FINELY SEXED WOMEN MARRY FOR LOVE 
ONLY. 

Marriage for position or money, or to sat- 
isfy other desires than love, is made possible 
simply and entirely by the lack of that 
virile power which accompanies superb 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 89 

physical health. A finely sexed, fully-devel- 
oped, womanly woman could no more marry 
without love than fire could mingle with 
water. Her whole physical, mental and moral 
being would cry out with repugnance and 
loathing against such a union. 

WOMEN LACK PROTECTING INSTINCT OF SEX. 

As a first step in marital unhappiness, be- 
cause of the lack of physical excellence, 
many women contract loveless marriages, 
which always start and end unhappily. For 
the need of this same physical power, which 
carries with it the normal instinct necessary 
to protect a woman from the more gross pas- 
sions of her marital partner, the life of many 
a married couple becomes a most harrassing 
existence, and in addition the woman suffers 
most serious physical tortures from the effects 
of unnatural excesses. There is nothing that 
predisposes a woman so strongly towards that 
which is right, natural and moral as the finer 
instincts of superb animal power. Such a 
woman is moral because her every desire, 
her every instinct is in favor of morality. 
Such a woman has no difficulty in finding 



90 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

and — what is more important— keeping a 
husband, for the simple reason that she re- 
spects the strong instincts of her nature, and 
forces her husband to do likewise, thus re- 
taining and increasing day by day his respect 
and his love. 

WEAK WOMEN UNFIT FOR MARITAL 
RELATIONS. 

" Those women who are pale and nervous, 
who are without a natural appetite, unable to 
do any active work, or enjoy any vigorous 
recreation without being constantly out of 
breath, who are faint and weak, always com- 
plaining of pain in their back, and many 
other symptoms which are inseparably con- 
nected with female weakness, are not parti- 
ally, but totally, unfitted for the marriage 
relation, and the man who marries such a 
woman not only makes her miserable, but 
himself also, and after a few years awakens 
to the fact that he has made the greatest 
mistake of his life." — Sylvanus Stall, D.D. 

NATURE'S LAWS OUTRAGED IN MARRIAGE. 

The entire conventional idea of marriage 
m&& t&a imtiei if & wif @ to he? feusfea&d $m 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 91 

abnormal, and unquestionably these per- 
verted theories have done much towards 
bringing about the unsatisfactory matri- 
monial condition now almost universal. The 
civil ceremony is supposed to give a man 
every privilege he may desire. The wife is 
supposed to be subjected to his every wish. 
The laws of Nature, or the laws of God, war- 
rants no such conclusion. In fact, it is plain 
that the wishes of the wife should be para- 
mount — that the husband should be subjected 
to and controlled by her. When this outrage 
to women and the plain laws of nature, in 
her total subjection to man in marital life, is 
fully realized, one of the principal causes of 
diseases peculiar to her sex is plain to any 
unprejudiced reasoner. 

FALSE CONCLUSIONS IN MARRIAGE. 

How many thousands of young women, 
apparently in good health, enter the realms 
of matrimony, and as a result find that their 
health of body and mind has been sacrificed. 
This should not be. It is usually caused by 
an undeveloped sexual instinct, and by the 
perverted impression that marriage tneasf 



92 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

total subjection to the wishes of another. On 
the " rocks " of this false conclusion are shat- 
tered the happiness, health and future pros- 
pects of thousands of married couples. 
Herein lies the paramount importance of 
superb physical health. Notwithstanding 
the influence that may be imposed on a 
woman by what she may have cause to 
believe is her duty, she will not stoop to any- 
thing that will outrage her physical instinct if 
she possesses all the power, beauty and health 
conjoined to superb, wholesome womanhood. 

MEN SHOULD BEWARE OF CORSET WRECKS. 

•■ That diaphragm-breathing and tight lac- 
ing are most ruinous to women and their off- 
spring is self-evident. No evil equals that of 
curtailing this maternal supply of breath ; 
nor does anything do this as effectually as 
tight lacing. If it were merely a female 
folly, or if its ravages were confined to its 
perpetrators, it might be passed unrebuked ; 
but it strikes a deadly blow at the very life of 
the race. By girting in the lungs, stomach 
and diaphragm, it cripples every one of the 
Mf e-manuf acturing functions, impairs circuit 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 98 

tion, impedes muscular action, and lays siege 
to the child-bearing citadel itself. It often 
destroys germinal life before birth, or soon 
after, by most effectually cramping, inflam- 
ing, and weakening the vital apparatus, and 
stopping the flow of life at its fountain head. 
It takes the lives of tens of thousands before 
they marry, and so effectually weakens and 
diseases as ultimately to cause the death of 
millions more. 

TIGHT LACING DESTROYS WOMANHOOD. 

" No tongue can tell, no finite mind conceive, 
he misery it has occasioned, nor the number 
of deaths, directly and indirectly, of young 
women, bearing mothers, and weakly infants 
it has occasioned ; besides those millions on 
millions it has caused to drag out a short but 
wretched existence. If this murderous prac- 
tice continues another generation, it will bury 
all the middle and upper class of women and 
children, and leave propogation to the coarse- 
grained but healthy lower. Most alarmingly 
has it already deteriorated our very race in 
physical strength, power of constitution, 
energy, and talents. Reader, how many of 



94 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

your weaknesses, pains, headaches, nervous 
affections, internal difficulties, and wretched 
feelings, are caused by your own or mother's 
corset-strings ? Such mother's deserve exe- 
cration. 

" Let men who had rather bury than raise 
their children, marry tight-lacers ; but those 
who would rear a healthy, talented, happy 
family, to bless their mature life, nurse their 
declining years, and perpetuate their name 
and race among men, should choose those 
naturally full-chested ; for such will be likely 
to live long, and bear vigorous children. 
Those who would not have their souls rent 
asunder by the premature death of wife and 
children, are solemnly warned not to marry 
small waists ; for such must of necessity die 
young, and bear few and feeble offsprings. 
You women who are willing to exchange the 
rosy cheek of health for laced pallor, the full 
round form of natural beauty for the poor, 
scrawny, sunken, haggard, almost ghastly 
figure of those who lace, or break the heart 
of husband and friends by your premature 
death, after agonizing yourselves by thus 
causing your children's death, till you ex- 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 95 

claim in nervous agony, ' Oh, wretched life 
that I live/ besides dying before your time, 
lace on tighter and tighter, and keep laced 
up night and day, till your life wheels 
cease to move. 

" Bachelors, make ' natural waists or no 
wives' your motto, and frown down this 
fashion your patronage fosters. Women will 
cease to lace when you show preference to 
good-sized waists. Let all condemn this race 
ruining custom." — Prof, O. S. Fowler. 

MARRY A WOMAN— NOT A CORSETED SEXLESS 
NONENTITY. 

The paramount importance of selecting a 
woman for a wife who possesses in the 
highest degree that physical vigor which 
denotes strong sexual instinct cannot be too 
strongly emphasized. It is well known that 
but few marriages are happy, but if one were 
able to view the inside conditions of those 
who do enjoy marital bliss, the facts would 
indicate that the woman possesses a strong 
sexual instinct, and that she compelled her 
husband to respect this instinct, thus debili- 
tating excesses were avoided. 



96 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

Catharine Beecher says in her book on 
Female Ailments, as to the proportion of 
women diseased sexually within her exten- 
sive observation and careful personal inquiry, 
that it exceeds twenty-nine in every thirty. 
My own average is, that not one woman in 
one hundred has a fair amount of sexual 
vigor, and that at least nine in every ten, if 
not nineteen in every twenty, are more or 
less prostrated, or else actually diseased sex- 
ually. 

SEXUAL INSTINCT NECESSARY TO MARITAL 
HAPPINESS. 

To a strongly sexed woman there are per- 
iods when intercourse should be repugnant, 
and if her instinct does not indicate these 
periods, and if she does not respect them and 
compel her husband to do likewise, there is 
small chance for happiness in such a mar- 
riage. Marriage under such condition is 
like an engine without a governor, a ship 
without a rudder. Excess that is limited 
only by the extreme exhaustion of the phy- 
sical forces can rarely be avoided. It is 
almost as sure to result as day is to follow 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 97 

night. And with this excess comes all sorts 
of weaknesses peculiar to woman. The man, 
too, feels exhausted, worn-out and debilitated 
most of the time. His physical energies, so 
seriously needed to carry on his business, or 
to assist him in reaching the goal of his 
ambitions, are all spent in excesses that 
never seem to end. 

woman's duty to possess this instinct. 

Unquestionably man is much to be blamed 
for the usual unsatisfactory condition that 
follows most marriages, but it is the woman's 
duty to regulate sexual matters. She should 
possess a strongly defined instinct which 
should clearly indicate her actions. If she 
does not possess this instinct, she has not the 
slightest right to marry. And if possessed 
of this, and the husband refuses to be guided 
by it, they may just as well separate immedi- 
ately, for no happiness will ever be found in 
marriage under such conditions. 

That is the real, true cause of unhappiness 
in nearly all marriages. It causes that irrit- 
able, dissatified, feeling that makes quarrel- 
ling so easily indulged. It is so hard for 



98 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

people to be honest, even to themselves, 
where sexual matters are concerned, but facts 
are facts and one cannot change them by 
any amount of prudish deceit. 

DEGRADING INFLUENCE OF MARITAL 
MISERIES. 

One can say much for happy marriages, 
much to encourage those who enter these 
sacred realms and find therein love, peace 
and happiness. But how about those who do 
not draw a prize ? — those who are scorched 
in the fire of eternal discontent, who find 
that the bonds of matrimony goad the very 
soul, day after day, with stinging cruelty ; 
that it animalizes the very best part of their 
nature, that it stifles every good and noble 
thought, that it crushes out every atom of 
wholesome ambition, and with the fangs of 
malicious hatred, created and fostered by 
this enforced unnatural relation, it poisons 
the very life of the principals in the tragedy. 
It matters not what the laws of man may be 
— the laws of justice, the laws of morality, 
the laws of nature, or even the laws of God, 
surely do not compel two poor victims of 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. *9 

matrimony to live together when it is an 
actual sin against the higher laws of life, 
when the deteriorating effects, physical and 
mental, are as bad as if leading a fast life 
with the lowest of human creatures. Mar- 
riage, if unhappy, depreciates the powers, 
mental, physical and moral, and one had 
a thousand times better remain single all 
through life than to contract such an un- 
satisfactory union. It will take away all 
hope, all ambition, everything that makes life 
worth living. It will drag its victims down 
the furthest extremes of misery and despair, 
down to the lowest depths of human de- 
pravity. The noblest character that ever 
breathed could not resist the baneful in- 
fluence of this condition of legalized prosti- 
tution. For what else can the enforced 
relations of a loveless marriage be called? 
When no love exists in this relation, there 
remains only the lowest, the most bestial 
passions. If the indulgence in these desires 
is not prostitution, will some one please 
define it? 

Marry a woman in possession of a vigor- 
ous, wholesome, well-shaped body. Avoid 



LnfC 



100 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

tight-laced waists as you would a scorpion, 
for though they may not sting you at the 
time, you may live to see the day when you 
will wish they had, for death is far preferable 
to life under some conditions, and one of 
these conditions is unquestionably that of 
being harried by marital miseries. 

A MINISTER'S ARRAIGNMENT OF CORSETED 
WOMEN. 

" Perhaps it is not putting it too strongly 
when we say that one-third of the great mass 
of young women are unqualified ever .to be- 
come wives or mothers, because of false 
education and inherited or acquired in- 
firmities. From one-half to two-thirds of all 
our married women suffer from some form 
of womb-trouble. Young girls, who are 
wholly ignorant of the delicate texture of 
their sexual organism, and without dreaming 
of the serious consequences which are to 
follow, contract their waists, and thus crowed 
the contents of the entire abdominal cavity 
below what is a natural position. By this 
means the womb is forced out of its desig- 
nated place, and when the strain is continued, 



WHY MARRIAGE SOMETIMES WRECKS. 101 

irritation and weakness result in a chronic 
condition, which quickly develops after mar- 
riage into the very prevalent ' falling of the 
womb/ causing a dragging or bearing-down 
sensation in the lower part of the abdomen, 
pain in the back, numbness of the lower 
limbs, and a general discomfort and misery, 
which must often be shared for years by all 
who dwell under the same roof with its 
unfortunate afflicted, unhappy, victim. 

MARRIAGE A CUKSE TO SUCH WOMEN. 

" To a woman thus afflicted life is a burden, 
and marriage a curse, rather than a blessing. 
False ideas of form, cruel and destructive 
fashion and pernicious education, accomplish 
this terrible ruin of human life and human 
happiness. Cure, or even alleviation of dis- 
comfort and suffering, are doubtful and diffi- 
cult, and the man who marries a woman with 
a compresssd waist may reasonably expect a 
sufficient inheritance of misery to last all the 
rest of his natural life. The man who 
marries such a woman, instead of obtaining 
a helpmate, imposes upon himself a burden. 
: Te may be ignorant of it at the time, but he 



102 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

will be sure to know it later on." — Sylvanus 
Stall, D. D. 

Even if a girl possesses a vigorous body 
and strongly sexed nature, the corset press- 
ing down on the delicate organs of sex, dis- 
places and lessens the strength of the organs 
themselves, and every surrounding part. 

That is the true reason why woman suffers 
so at childbirth. The abdomen and other 
muscles have been weakened, thus weaken- 
ing the internal organs to a similar degree, 
and without that power so necessary under 
the circumstances, she naturally suffers 
seriously at this time. 

Let the warning be plain. Avoid corset- 
crushed waists ', or prepare for marital miseries 
that will torture your soul like an animal that is 
being goaded with a red hot iron. 



103 



Chapter XII, 

SEXUAL ANNIHILATION OR 
STARVATION, 

ERRONEOUS IMPRESSION OF SEXUAL NATURE 

There is a ridiculous impression in the 
minds of some prudes, who have somehow 
acquired the idea that they are gifted with 
an excessive amount of refinement, that the 
sexual part of their nature is something 
vulgar, to be crushed out of mind and body. 
Unfortunately there are a few whose minds 
are so strong, or the sexual instincts so weak, 
that their efforts result in a sort of sexual 
annihilation or starvation. If they ever had 
any evidence of the possession of the magne- 
tism and charm that nearly always accom- 
pany a person in a high degree of health, it 
disappears, and there remains a vacancy as 
it were. They even have a vacant expres- 
sion which shows to the world their lack of 
sexual and general physical stamina, indica- 



104 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

ting, in reality, they are neither men nor 
women, but mere nonentities, from a sexual 
standpoint, and in nearly every case their 
abilities and powers in other directions are 
of a similar mediocre character. 

MANLY MEN ALWAYS WELL SEXED. 

In the same proportion that one succeeds 
in crushing out what he erroneously ima- 
gines to be his lower nature, to a similar 
degree will his powers in other ways deterio- 
rate. A man to be of any importance must 
first be a man, and without that stamina, 
energy and general wholesome vigor, which 
is the usual accompaniment of finely sexed 
manhood, there is but small prospect of ever 
accomplishing anything of importance in 
life. Instead of adopting those means that 
will tend to lessen the powers of sex, it is 
the stern duty of every man to try to build 
and retain strength of this character. It 
makes him more manly, more courageous* 
capable of rising above the level of a medio- 
cre existence. 



SEXUAL ANNIHILATION. 105 

GREATER STRENGTH MORE EASILY 
CONTROLLED. 

There is not the slightest occasion for fear 
that one will acquire sexual strength which 
will grow beyond control. There is always 
greater strength of control under normal, 
than there is under abnormal conditions. 
Normal strength is steady, healthy — nothing 
unnatural or feverish about it; though very 
often under some momentary stimulus of 
feverish intensity even weak organs acquire 
an unnatural strength, which always react to 
their disadvantage by bringing about a 
relapse that often totally deprives them of 
power for a time. 



;o6 



Chapter XIII. 



COMPLETE IMPOTENCE FROM OLD 
AGE AND OTHER CAUSES. 



NERVOUS POWER CONTROLS SEXUAL 
STRENGTH. 

As stated before, sexual power fluctuates 
as influenced by the nervous strength. It 
controls sexual strength, which is really an 
important part of the nervous organization. 
Therefore, anything that influences adverse- 
ly the nervous organization has a similar 
influence on the sexual power. 

If one neglects regular exercise — if no 
attention is given to those laws that are of 
such vast importance in the acquirement and 
retainment of vigorous health— regardless of 
how strong one may be from a sexual stand- 
point — he must expect his strength in this 
way gradually to decline, with a prospect of 
entire impotence. The effects of physical 



COMPLETE IMPOTENCE FROM OLD AGE. 107 

decay are quickly manifested by the lessen- 
ing of the sexual strength. 

PREMATURE IMPOTENCE INDUCED. 

Many men become impotent years and 
years before such a result is necessary, for 
the simple reason that they allow the general 
physical health to decline in vigor, and fail 
to make the necessary efforts to regain this 
power, which really gives spice, enthusiasm 
and zest to life, 

This exhilaration, this excess of energy, 
which shows itself in every vigorous man in 
fine condition, is really nothing more than 
the buoyant influence of abundant nervous 
or sexual strength — both really mean the 
same thing. Wherever you find a man pos- 
sesses one, he will always possess the other 
to an equal degree. 

Of course, all loss of sexual strength is 
accompanied by general physical decline, 
but men often lose power in this way, because 
of their neglect in keeping their physical 
forces to a normal standard of health, and 
not because of any excess or other violations 
of the laws of sex, 



108 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD, 

SEDENTARY HABITS CAUSE OF IMPOTENCE. 

You can depend upon it as an unfailing 
rule that no man who follows strictly a 
sedentary occupation can for many years 
retain the virile powers of manhood. It 
is as certain to disappear as day is to follow 
night. 

The normal circulation of the blood de- 
pends upon at least an occasional use of the 
entire muscular system. This use of the 
muscles disseminates the waste matter, and 
assists very materially in the work of elimin- 
ation, thus all parts of the body are kept 
constantly in a superior condition. 

A poor circulation and vigorous health are 
never co-existent. They do not go together. 
What is needed above all things in the devel- 
opment of sexual vigor is the perfect circula- 
tion of the blood throughout the entire body. 

NO EXCUSE FOR LOSS OF THESE POWERS. 

Of course, in early youth, when the vital 
forces are particularly strong, one may not 
conform to the laws of health in any way 
and still apparently possess all the vigor of 
superb vitality. But this will last only for 



COMPLETE IMPOTENCE FROM OLD AGE. 10V 

a time. Premature loss of general health 
and sexual vigor will be influenced in time 
without the slightest doubt, just as sure as 
effect follows cause. 

No man, regardless of age, has the slightest 
excuse for allowing his powers, in this way, 
to remain impotent. As long as he is not 
actually a bed-ridden invalid, or is not suf- 
fering from some incurable chronic disease 
there is not the slightest excuse for either 
becoming or remaining impotent. 

The sexual powers, given only a moderate 
amount of care, should last as long as life, 
and a man who allows this power to slip 
away has no one to blame but himself for his 
loss, and can blame no one but himself if he 
allows it to remain permanent. 

We can promise a recovery and a strength- 
ening of these powers with a certainty so 
absolute, so unfailing, that there remains not 
the slightest question if the sufferer ac- 
curately and regularly follows the rules we 
have laid down here for strengthening the 
nervous organism. 



110 



Chapter XIV. 



UNDEVELOPED OR WASTED 
ORGANS. 



HOW THESE DEFECTS CAN BE REMEDIED. 

Where the sexual organ has wasted away 
from excesses and other debilitating in- 
fluences, about the only remedy is to build up 
the nervous, digestive and muscular forces 
as advised here. Gradually your strength 
will return, and with this renewal of vigor, 
your sexual powers will very slowly appear. 
Of course the importance of these special ex" 
ercises to strengthen and bring the blood to 
the adjacent muscles and organs cannot be 
emphasized too strongly. Cold bathing and 
plenty of fresh air allowed to come in direct 
contact with all parts of the body will be 
found of great value. A cure depends simply 
on your ability to bring back the nervous and 
muscular powers through the special system 
here illustrated, 



UNDEVELOPED OR WASTED ORGANS. Ill 

A DANGEROUS REMEDY USEFUL IN RARE 
CASES ONLY. 

Massage of the organ itself with an air 
pump, which is made for this particular pur- 
pose, will, no doubt, be of value in some 
special cases. This remedy is, however, very- 
dangerous, and if used to excess may produce 
serious harm. It should be adopted only in 
extreme cases, and then should be used with 
utmost care to avoid any possible chance of 
excess. This device is a glass tube, some- 
what larger than the average male organ, 
and is provided with a vacuum pump, which 
forces out the air. As the air is removed 
the blood is drawn down into the organ, 
gradually enlarging and drawing it out to its 
greatest possible size. The inventor claims 
that there is absolutely no sexual excitement 
connected with this — that it simply brings 
more blood to the organ, thus giving new 
life and vigor, as does a massage treatment 
when applied to the body. 

In some few cases, where the sexual organ 
is unnaturally small, or where it has re- 
mained in an undeveloped state, this device 
will be of benefit, though it should not be 



m 



112 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

used until all other means have failed — it 
should be the last resort. 

The danger of over-stimulation of the 
organ when using a device of this character 
is very great, and its use should cease alto- 
gether when improvement is noted. 

Any benefit derived from the use of this 
device, however, will be only transitory, if 
the means here advised for general physical 
improvement are not closely followed. 

The device mentioned above will be for- 
warded by us on receipt of price, $6.00, 
though remember the writer's warning in 
reference to its use and the fact that it is of 
no value if the cause is simply depleted physi- 
cal and nervous powers, and even when its use 
can be recommended it should be used only 
a few times with long intervals intervening. 
All letters referring to this, address to 
publishers and mark persona/. 



1U 



Chapter XV. 



VARICOCELE. 



SIMPLE REMEDY FOR THIS AGGRAVATING 
COMPLAINT. 

This is usually the result of self -abuse in 
early life, though it often appears with exces- 
sive nigi-t losses. Sexual excess of almost 
any kind will cause it, however; as will also 
the weakening influences of any one of the 
various sexual diseases. Usually but little 
difficulty will be found in effecting a cure by 
very simple means. Of course, the general 
health should be made as vigorous as pos- 
sible. The system of exercise as illustrated 
here should be taken regularly and all 
other advice followed that will evidently be 
beneficial. In addition to this the parts 
should be bathed twice per day, from two to 
five minutes, in very cold water. If a sitz 
bath can be taken, as advised in the chapter 
referring to bathing, recovery will be more 



114 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

rapid and certain. This appears to be a very 
simple means of cure, but unless an operation 
is absolutely essential it will effect the desired 
results in a very short time. 

AVOID OLD EXCESSES. 

It will be well to note, however, that if 
you go back to the old excesses, or if you 
allow yourself to decline in vigor, the trouble 
is liable to appear again. Avoid wearing any 
support for the scrotum unless absolutely 
necessary. A continued support is liable to 
weaken the walls of the scrotum, thus de- 
creasing the strength of the testicles. A sup- 
port under certain conditions is, no doubt, de- 
sirable, but it should be worn just as little as 
possible. 



Li* 



Chapter XVI. 



METHODS OF TREATMENT. 



DRUG TONICS OF ABSOLUTELY NO BENEFIT. 

Let us emphasize at the very start that no 
drugs, no tonics of any kind, in form of elec- 
tricity or belt of any description, can be of 
the slightest influence towards creating or 
strengthening sexual power. The remedy 
must come from within, must accompany 
the building up of all the physical forces. 
The circulation of the entire body must be 
awakened and brought up to a normal 
standard by natural means. Every sufferer 
from impotence has a poor circulation. 
These troubles are always co-existent. 

Even if some stimulant can be found 
which will for a time arouse the organs of 
sex to renewed and abnormal activity, the 
ultimate result of this false stimulation will 



L16 SlS OF bUPIiRB MANHOOD. 

be to wear out the organs and bring on per- 
manent impotence just that much quicker. 

NATURAL REMEDIES EFFECT RESULTS. 

Nature! Depend on Nature and natural 
means entirely if you desire a cure. There 
is no excuse for impotence. One should 
retain the power of sex all through life, and 
if the laws of Nature have not been grossly 
violated, this can be done in every instance. 
If your powers in this way have been depleted 
or destroyed, rejuvenate them again by build- 
ing up the nervous and physical forces. The 
writer can promise with absolute certainty 
that this can be done in every case where the 
vitality of life still exists, if the natural 
methods described and illustrated in this 
book are adopted and carried out accurately 
and regularly for a sufficient length of time, 
though, as the powers begin to return, great 
care must be taken not to begin again the 
excess or unnatural drain which may have 
assisted in causing your condition. 

Do not waste your time by trying this 
treatment for a few days only. Do not ex- 
pect any particular^ noticeable change for 



METHODS OF TREATMENT. 117 

at least two weeks, though very often decided 
improvement is noted in a few days. 

INFALLIBLE METHODS HERE RECOMMENDED. 

Do not for one minute allow yourself to 
doubt the ultimate satisfactory results of 
this treatment, for renewed sexual power 
is as absolutely certain if this method is 
followed as is the conclusion derived from 
a simple mathematical problem. These 
methods cannot fail. If enough strength 
is possessed to carry them out, you will have 
sufficient vitality to develop the desired 
results. Regardless of what your age or 
condition of health may be, unless you are 
actually a bed-ridden invalid, satisfactory 
results can be depended upon, for in nearly 
every case the principal cause of loss of this 
power is not sexual excess, but a general de- 
cline of the physical forces, and if these forces 
are built up — rejuvenated, as it were — and 
the circulation accelerated by natural means 
to the parts affected, thus increasing in 
vigor all the adjacent muscles and organs — 
the powers and vitality, in some cases almost 
equal to that of youth, return as a reward 
for the efforts made. 



118 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

CAREFULLY PERUSE ALL INSTRUCTIONS. 

Particular attention must be given to the 
instruction, and each chapter relating to the 
treatment must be carefully read and re-read, 
that the theory of the method may be thor- 
oughly understood. An entire change will, 
no doubt, have to be made in your life, daily 
habits, diet, clothing, bathing, etc. ; but lay 
aside your prejudices and give the methods 
as described a thorough trial. Many have 
labored under delusions in reference to diet 
and general habits of life, which have des- 
troyed their strength of mind, body and sex, 
and ultimately their lives. Give these 
methods a fair trial. Give kindly Nature 
a chance to benefit you. 



I'.l 



Chapter XVII. 



SYSTEM OF EXERCISE FOR BUILD- 
ING VITAL AND SEXUAL POWER. 



PROPER EXERCISE PRODUCES NORMAL 
HEALTH, 

Muscular exercise, adapted to the needs of 
the individual, tends to produce, in every 
case, a more normal condition. For instance, 
if one is too fleshy to be in normal health, it 
will take off flesh ; if too thin, it will add flesh. 
This ability of physical culture to bring 
about the highest degree of normal health 
is exemplified with equal emphasis in sexual 
life. Those who suffer from weakness in 
this way will find in specially adapted train- 
ing the only safe means of cure. As the 
muscles develop, the digestive power in- 
creases, the circulation improves, the nerves 
are strengthened, and the mind freshened 
with renewed confidence. This building up 
of the physical strength affects beneficially 



120 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

every organ of the body. The same can be 
said of its effects on those suffering sexually 
from an excess of animal life. This is a 
disease just the same as the other extreme, 
and this surplus energy can be absorbed and 
used to advantage if expended in muscular 
exercise. Not only does the muscle and 
nerve power increase, and the general health 
vastly improve when this method is followed, 
but the unusual and unnatural strength of 
this abnormal desire disappears, creating in 
reality a greater, safer strength, and remov- 
ing the feverishness of an over-wrought 
nervousness. 

INACTIVE MUSCLES SLOWLY DEGENERATE. 

Activity is the law of life. Inactivity 
means decay. Long-continued stagnation 
means death. Some men have the incom- 
prehensible audacity to believe that their 
muscular system can remain idle indefinitely 
without losing in the slightest degree that 
symmetry and strength they have acquired 
through extreme activity in early life. They 
seem to forget that an inactive muscle slowly 
degenerates, grows smaller and weaker and 



EXERCISE FOR BUILDING POWER. 121 

gradually lessens in firmness and symmetry. 
The lesson so plainly taught of the wasting 
away of an unused muscle when a bone has 
been broken should be remembered. The 
first time an opportunity is secured, examina 
the muscle on a broken arm after it has had 
a complete rest of a few weeks. You will 
find it wasted almost to nothing. There is 
no more startling example of the results of 
muscular inactivity than this. The entire 
muscular system will waste away to a similar 
degree if it does not receive regular use, and 
it is not entirely this wasting process that 
is to be deplored — the general vigor of the 
body is lessened to a similar degree. The 
nervous organism is weakened in exactly the 
same proportion, and with this neryous de- 
generacy, of course, comes the decay of the 
sexual powers. 

MUSCLE REPLACED BY FATTY TISSUE. 

To be sure, if you are leading an inactive 
life, you may not notice this wasting process, 
for if the digestive pov^ers are good, as the 
muscles disappear fatty tissue will be depos- 
ed to replace them, Thus externally you 



122 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

see but little change, though there will be a 
tremendous change in strength. For a mo- 
ment the strength may seem almost as great 
as ever, but when continued efforts, even 
for a short time, are required, the loss of 
muscular power is readily detected. 

UTILITY OF SEXUAL POWERS GOVERNS THEIR 
LIFE. 

Let the writer emphasize the statement 
that impotence always ultimately follows 
long-continued muscular inactivity. This 
result is as certain to appear as day is to 
follow night. It is the law of Nature that it 
should be so. The sexual powers of man 
were given for the perpetuation of his kind. 
When his powers so decline that he possesses 
nothing worth transmitting, then the power 
of reproduction, and often all sexual desire, 
is removed. Utility is the law of the uni- 
verse. When anything or any power ceases 
to be useful it disappears. 

EXERCISE ACCELERATES CIRCULATION TO 
ALL PARTS. 

The effect of cultivating sexual vigor by 
building up the muscular and vital powerf 



EXERCISE FOR BUILDING POWER. 123 

of the body can not be fittingly described. 
If all powers in this way are lost, or if they 
seem to have so diminished in vigor that the 
intense desire of vigorous pulsating youth 
has disappeared, they can be entirely re- 
gained by natural processes assisted by the 
muscular movements here described ; since 
the bringing of rich blood in copious quanti- 
ties to every part of the body which results 
from these exercises is one of the salient 
features necessary in order to regain the 
sexual powers. 

Under the influence of proper exercise for 
every muscle of the body, the heart, with 
quick and strong and greatly accelerated 
pulsations, forces the blood with increased 
power through the arteries and capillaries, 
drives the impurities out through the great 
purifying organs, the skin and kidneys, and 
causes every organ of the body to be re- 
juvenated and strengthened. 

EXERCISE AN INTERNAL CLEANSING AGENT 

The effects of exercise can be fitly com- 
pared to a bath. It cleanses the internal 

lystem just as hot water and sotp debases 






124 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

the external. The vast nervous organism, 
with branches reaching throughout the most 
minute parts of the body, feels the great 
benefit of this internal cleansing process 
almost immediately. As the muscles grow 
stronger, firmer and more symmetrical, the 
power and delicacy of the nervous system 
vastly increase, and like a guitar string that is 
toned up just to the right pitch, every nerve 
will quickly respond when required with the 
harmony of exquisite, delightful music. No 
cigar smoker or whiskey drinker ever tasted 
in all its fulness, the marvelous intensity 
and power, of full, complete, sexual strength. 
Benumbed nerves cannot feel ; perverted 
emotions cannot produce that which is com- 
petely satisfying. Something is always 
wanting. 

ANY SYSTEM USING ALL THE MUSCLES 
BENEFICIAL. 

Any ordinary system of exercise that uses 
to a moderate degree all the muscles of the 
body will, of course, be found beneficial in 
accelerating the circulation and increas- 
ing the virile powers of man; but those 
movements that are especially advantageous 



EXERCISE FOR BUILDING POWER. 

for strengthening the vigor of those parts of 
the body closely surrounding the organs of 
sex will be found vastly more valuable in 
speedily producing the desired results. The 
exercise of these muscles accelerates the 
circulation directly to those parts, and nat- 
urally the benefit which accrues to them, by 
the renewed life brought in the quickened 
circulation, is shared by the sexual organs 
also. Thus, in selecting a system of muscu- 
lar exercise especially for strengthening 
and for bringing into life dormant sexual 
powers, the writer has devised a series of 
movements that strengthen not only the 
lungs, heart and organs of digestion and 
general vital system, but directly affect the 
sexual organs by vastly increasing the sup- 
ply of new, rich blood to all the surround- 
ing parts. 

REGULATE EXERCISE ACCORDING TO 
STRENGTH. 

The amount of exercise that should be 
taken by each individual at the start must 
be determined entirely by the strength pos- 
sessed. Continue each movement until a 



126 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

verv slight feeling of fatigue ensues. Rest a 
moment only, and then go on to the next 
exercise. Be very careful not to exercise 
too much at first. 

Take each movement say five or eight 
times at the start. Increase one or two each 
day, and after having practiced daily for ten 
days or two weeks, each one can then be 
continued until you are tired. 

The exercise should be taken while lying 
in bed, immediately on awakening. 

Your room should, of course, be thor- 
oughly supplied with fresh air by proper 
ventilation at all times, but especial care 
must be used to see that there is a plentiful 
supply of pure air when taking these 
exercises. 

PURE AIR OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 

Open the windows wide. 

When thoroughly awake throw the covers 
off. If especially cold, a few of the exer- 
cises can be taken to warm the body, before 
throwing off the covers, though it will be 
found of especial advantage for you to fol- 
low the advice given in a preceding chapter 



EXERCISE FOR BUILDING POWER. 127 

and accustom yourself gradually to cold air. 
But there is no need of exposing yourself 
too much at the start. 

Be very moderate in any change you in- 
tend to make. 

As soon as you are inured to the cold air, 
instead of merely throwing off the covers, 
you should, in addition, remove every parti- 
cle of clothing, so tha'. you can take your ex- 
ercise entirely nude, as previously advised, 
but do not try this at first. 

The writer repeats: Be Moderate! Feel 
your way, step by step ! How do you know 
but that this treatment may be another fake? 

BE BORN AGAIN. 

When a man sees and feels that he can 
practically be born over again, that he can 
be made almost like new, by a few syste- 
matic, sensible efforts; if there is a spark of 
vitality within him, he will immediately en- 
deavor to secure the rewards so easily with- 
in his reach. 

If you have had the usual experience, you 
have no doubt spent large sums of money 
and still larger quantities of time in search- 



128 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

ing for the remedy that we offer you here 
practically for nothing. Give the methods 
here advised a trial for tw r o weeks, and after 
that there will be no need to spur you on to 
further efforts — you will continue without 
the necessity of such incentives. 

If you feel tired before going through all 
the movements advised, do not try to finish 
them the first few times. At the conclusion 
of your reclining exercises, stand on the 
floor and take an exercise similar to jump- 
ing a rope until you begin to breathe freely, 
then draw in a few deep inhalations, after 
which take a cold sitz bath (immersing hips 
only in water.) If this cannot be done con- 
veniently, take a cold sponge bath, and 
stoop down over a basin of water, dipping 
up the water and allowing it to run freely 
over the private organs. 

After the covers are removed you can be- 
gin the exercises, bearing in mind the in- 
structions given in reference to how long 
each movement should be continued. 

Exercise No. i. — Recline flat on back, 
raise the hips as high as you can off the bed, 



EXERCISE FOR BUILDING POWER. 129 

the weight, of course, resting on heels and 




P r 

shoulders. For muscles on posterior portion 
of hips and small of back. 

Exercise No. 2. — Recline on right side. 
Now raise the hips (knees straight) as high 
as you can from the bed, the weight resting 




^» 



IMF 4 



N \ 



on right foot and right arm and shoulder. 
The same exercise reclining on left side. 
For muscles on sides from waist to thighs. 
Exercise No. 3 — Recline on the back and 



ir~ 




place some covers over the feet to hold them 



136 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

down. Now, with hands placed on thighs, 
raise to a sitting position without assisting 
with the hands. For the muscles of the 
abdomen. 

Exercise No. 4. — Recline on the stomach. 
Grasp the head of the bed somewhere 
tightly with the hands. Now, without 




bending the knees, raise both legs as high 
as possible. Not very much of a movement 
can be made in this exercise, but it is valu- 
able for affecting the muscles of small of 
back, and large muscles on posterior portion 
of hips. 

Exercise No. 5. — Recline on back. Now 




raise right leg with knee straight until as 



EXERCISE FOR BUILDING POWER. HI 

illustrated. Same exercise with left leg. 
For muscles of anterior portion of upper 
thighs. 

Exercise No. 6. — Recline on right side. 
Now raise left leg with knee straight as 




high as you can upward. Same exercise 
with right leg while reclining on left side. 
For outer portion of upper thighs. 

Exercise No. 7. — Recline on back. Nov/ 
bring right leg with knee straight as far as 




possible over left leg. Same exercise with 
right leg. For muscles on inside of upper 
thighs. 

Exercise No. 8. — Recline on stomach. 
Now raise right leg with knee straight as 



132 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

far upward as possible. Same exercise with 




left leg. For muscles on posterior portion 
of hips. 

Exercise No. 9.— Recline on back. Now 
grasp hold of something behind the head, 




then raise both feet as high as you can. Foi 
muscles of lower part of abdomen and uppei 
part of tighs. 

Exercise No. 10. — Recline on back. Now 
bend both knees as much as possible, then 



EXERCISE FOR BUILDING POWER. 



133 



kick out straight upward with right and left 




legs alternately. For muscles in central 
portion of upper leg. 

Exercise No. n. — Recline on right side. 
Now cross right leg at ankle over left leg 
just above knee, then raise the hips as high 




as you can, the weight resting on right 
shoulder and left leg. Same exercise reclin- 
ing on left side. For muscles on inside of 
thighs and lateral portion of waist. 

Exercise No. 12. — Recline on stomach. 
Now cross the right ankle over the left 
ankle, then bend the left leg at knee as 



134 



POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 



much as possible, raising the weight of 
lower right leg. Same exercise with right 




leg. For muscles of the posterior portion 
of central upper leg. 



Chapter XVIII. 



SPECIAL COURSE OF EXERCISES. 



ESPECIALLY FOR DEVELOPING CHEST, SHOUL- 
DERS, BACK AND ARMS. 

The course here illustrated is to be added 
to the reclining exercises after you have be- 
come inured to the work, say in ten days or 
two weeks. Continue to take the morning 
exercise as advised, but take this course just 
before retiring in the evening. 

Do not forget the necessity of fresh, pure 
air, and see that the windows are wide open. 

Continue each movement until slightly 
tired. 

If you have an exerciser, or are following 
some good system of exercise similar to that 
of the writer's with device made for that 
particular purpose, there will be no neces- 
sity for taking these movements. The 
course with the apparatus can take its place. 

Don't forget that the less clothes worn 



136 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

during the exercise the better. Exercise 
vigorously, put vim, life, energy, determin- 
ation in every movement, every effort. 

Exercise No. i. — Assume position as per 
Fig, i. Hold elbows at sides, and raise 
hands up and down quickly forty to sixty 
times. Now draw in full breath, all you can, 
and hold it while you make twenty move- 




ments. Repeat three times. Now flex the 
muscles of arms, and imagine you are lifting 
a very heavy weight, and bring hands up 
and down very slowly. This is for develop- 
img the arras. 



SPECIAL COURSE OF EXERCISES. 137 

Exercise No. 2. — Assume position as per 
illustration No. 2. Draw in deep inspira- 
tion, all you can. Now hold this breath, and, 
keeping elbows rigid, swing arms quick and 




strong, far backward and forward on a level 
with shoulders as long as you can conven- 
iently retain the breath. Repeat until tired. 
For expanding the chest and increasing 
lung power. 

Exercise No* 3. — Stand erect, with feet far 



138 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

apart. Now touch the floor far to the right, 




as per illustration; then far to the left. Re- 
peat exercise from ten to twenty times. 

Exercise No. 4. — Assume position as per 
illustration No. 4. Keep knees very rigid, 
raise hands high as you can over head with 




elbows rigid, from fifteen to twenty-five 
times. For strengthening the back. 

Exercise No. 5. — Strongly brace yourself 
as per illustration No. 5. Now strike out 



SPECIAL COURSE OF EXERCISES. 131) 

hard and quick with right and left hands 
alternately, reaching out as far as you can 
at each blow. Continue until tired. Count 
each time, to see how you are able to im- 
prove in endurance. 




Complete your evening exercise by taking 
ten full, deep breaths before an open win- 
dow. Throw shoulders far back and hold 
each breath about twenty seconds. Always 
breathe through the nose. 

Sometime during the day (not immedi- 
ately after a hearty meal) walk about two 
miles at a fast gait, increase this walk a 



140 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD, 

quarter of a mile each day until you are 
walking six miles per day. During this 
walk draw in many deep breaths, occasion- 
ally retain breath for a moment, drawing 
shoulders up and back as far as you can and 
holding them in this position. While hold- 
ing the shoulders in this position contract 
the muscles of the arms and chest as tensely 
as possible. 

Conclude each time with a jumping exer_ 
cise similar to jumping a rope, and, if strong 
enough, jump back and forth over some 
obstacle. 

Do not forget to take a hot bath, with 
plenty of soap and water, two or three times 
per week after evening exercise. 



141 



Chapter XIX. 



THE WALK TONIC. 



HEALTH CAN BE SECURED FROM WALKING. 

The great physical benefit that can be de- 
rived from walking will actually astound 
anyone who will give it a thorough trial. 
Not walking as ordinarily understood, but 
walking for pleasure, for health. 

No matter what sort of a contest an ath- 
lete may be training for, walking always 
constitutes an important part of the work. 
All trainers claim it hardens and develops 
the muscles and gives great endurance. 

The walk must be taken with a different 
spirit from that which usually exists under 
such circumstances. Put energy, life, action 
in every movement, every impulse. 

LET THE OBJECT OF WALKING BE HEALTH. 

Walk as though it was a pleasure, and if 
you are serious in your attempts, the result 



142 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOB. 

will be thorough enjoyment of the exercise. 
As to the distance necessary to produce 
the best results, the writer advises that the 
walk be continued until there is a feeling of 
fatigue, until a comfortable seat is enjoyed. 
Never, under any circumstances, become 
too ambitious at first. It is far better to lean 
toward the side of moderation. 

Gradually increase the distance as you 
become thoroughly familiar with your 
strength and requirements. 

Now come the important instructions in 
reference to this walk if the greatest bene- 
fits are to be derived. 

GIVE CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THIS, 

For a short distance you must walk rather 
slowly. Gradually increase until you are 
traveling at a gait considered fast for you. 
As speed is increased begin to inhale deeply, 
always through the nose, expanding the chest 
to its greatest capacity. At each time the 
lungs are completely filled, retain the breath 
for a short time, flex (make tense and hard) 
the muscles of the arms and chest, bring the 
shoulders far back and draw the abdomen 



THE WALK TONIC. 14* 

in. Hold the shoulders in this position for 
a short time, and make several endeavors to 
bring them still farther back. This exercise 
will tend to give proper carriage, and in 
connection with the special breathing, will 
cause you to realize that it is really and 
truly a " walk tonic.** 



144 



Chapter XX. 



DIET. 



IMPORTANCE OF PROPER FOODS. 

No matter what precautions may be taken 
with the object of building a higher degree 
of physical health, unless you are following 
a wholesome nourishing diet but little or no 
improvement can be acquired. In fact, noth- 
ing indicates the importance of a properly 
arranged diet so clearly as the fact that some 
people have actually kept in health by care- 
ful attention to the quantity and character 
of the foods used, giving but little attention 
to exercise. 

IN REFERENCE TO VEGETARIANISM. 

Although the writer favors a vegetarian 
diet, he eats just what his appetite craves, 
and if meat is desired, which often occurs, he 
does not refuse to satisfy this demand. In 
fact, unless one is living at an institution 



DIET. 145 

where the various varieties of vegetarian 
foods can be secured, properly prepared, or 
unless you have the essential knowledge in 
securing this variety and can prepare or have 
these various foods prepared, vegetarianism 
had better be strictly avoided. Many have 
lessened their physical power quite materi- 
ally by endeavoring to follow certain diets 
without the knowledge or ingredients neces- 
sary. Any change in diet should be slowly 
adopted. Do not stop suddenly eating foods 
that have apparently agreed with you and 
start immediately on an entirely different 
regimen. Feel your way, step by step on 
any new diet you may choose to adopt. 

READ BOOKS ON DIET. 

Diet is really a study in itself, and if the 
reader desires thorough familiarity with the 
subject, the writer would advise that he read 
several of the very valuable books that treat 
of it. Do not read one only, and take that 
as a standard. Read several, and draw your 
own conclusions. In this way your knowl- 
edge of diet becomes a part of you, and there 
is no necessity for referring to some book 



146 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

when desirous of securing some particular 
information. 

POWER OF THE IMAGINATION. 

The statement is often quoted that " What 
is one man's food, is another man's poison." 
This is not true, though in many false state- 
ments one may find a grain of truth, and it 
is so with this. Everyone knows the great 
power of the imagination over the body. It 
has an equal power over the stomach and 
digestive forces generally. If one eats a food 
that he believes is harmful, he is continually 
searching with all the keenness of his ima- 
gination for signs to indicate that the ex- 
pected trouble has actually begun, and in this 
way so centres his attention to that organ 
that the expected symptoms are really pro- 
duced. 

Disguise any wholesome, nourishing food 
which the appetite craves, and which is sup- 
posed to result in injury, and have a person 
eat it under the supposition that it is some- 
thing else, and in nearly every case the pain- 
ful symptoms experienced before whenever 
the food was eaten will not appear. 



DIET. 147 

DEVELOP A NORMAL APPETITE. 

Of course, we must admit that the diges- 
tive powers of various individuals differ very 
greatly, and although one may be able to ex- 
tract the desired nourishment from a certain 
article of food, another may have some de- 
fect in his digestive organs, or the gastric 
juices, which will make it difficult to use this 
food to advantage ; therefore the importance 
of developing and depending on a normal 
appetite to select a satisfactory diet cannot 
be too strongly emphasized. A normal ap- 
petite craves most strongly that special food 
element which is needed the most at that 
particular time to nourish the body. Most 
appetites are normal until made morbid by 
overeating, eating when not hungry, and 
other weakening practices. The craving 
for unwholesome foods in nearly every case 
indicates that the stomach has become in- 
jured by stuffing, and the mass of fermented 
food with which it is struggling often creates 
an appetite for almost anything that will 
assist in bringing relief. The appetite for 
alcoholic stimulants, for instance, is always 
greatly increased if the stomach is suffering 



148 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

from overeating or from a series of meals 
eaten without appetite. 

GLADSTONE'S RULE FOR MASTICATION. 

Nearly every authority on diet will advise 
one to eat slowly, but that does not mean to 
chew slowly. You can move your jaws as 
fast as desired. In fact, the faster one chews 
the more copiously the saliva flows, and 
consequently the more quickly the food is 
ready to be swallowed. 

Gladstone is reported to have said that 
each mouthful of food should be chewed 
thirty times, and this calculation is very 
nearly correct if one desires the saliva to 
play its important part in the digestive 
process. 

FOOD MUST BE ENJOYED. 

Chew your food thoroughly. Get all the 
enjoyment out of the process of eating that 
you possibly can. It is an actual sin against 
your own body to eat without hunger. One 
of the most important digestive processes is 
brought into thorough action by the keen 
enjoyment of food. It is not only the saliva 
but the gastric juice of the stomach that flows 



DIET. 149 

more freely when food is intensely enjoyed. 
But if no hunger is experienced when eat- 
ing — if the food is washing down without 
appetite or enjoyment — the digestive pro- 
cess is carried on with great difficulty, and 
no one can enjoy vigorous health under such 
circumstances. Food eaten under such con- 
ditions is of absolutely no benefit. It had 
far better not be eaten at all. It simply gives 
the digestive organs that much more of a 
load to eliminate. No strength is gained 
from it. It really lessens the muscular 
strength, for it takes the blood away from 
the muscles, that it may assist in the process 
of ridding the digestive organs of the addi- 
tional load that has been introduced without 
excuse. 

FOOD EATEN WITHOUT HUNGER LESSENS 
STRENGTH. 

But you may say, "I must keep up my 
strength. I seem to be growing weaker all 
the time, and must eat, or I won't be able 
to walk." The very means you have adopted 
to keep up your strength is the actual cause 
of your weakness. 



150 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

Wait for an appetite if not hungry. Let 
this be an unfailing rule. You cannot pos- 
sibly enjoy vigorous health if this rule is not 
recognized and followed. 

HOW HUNGER CAN BE CULTIVATED. 

But some will say, " Why, I would never 
grow hungry." 

You need not worry one moment about 
this. Fast from one to seven days, and there 
will not be the slightest doubt that your ap- 
petite will be resurrected in all its youthful 
intensity, and with this appetite will come 
renewed enjoyment of everything in life. 
Food will then benefit you. It will be 
digested, and new life, new energy will thrill 
your nerves when this new, rich blood begins 
to circulate. 

If the diet is confined to foods that possess 
the elements of nourishment, it is not so 
much a question of what one eats, as how 
much is eaten. 

Eat what you can digest — w T hat your ap- 
petite calls for — not all you can stuff into 
your stomach. 

When the food palls— when it ceases to be 



DIET. 151 

eaten with a keen relish — stop right there ! 
Do not eat another bite. 

SUPERFINE WHITE FLOUR NOT A FOOD. 

Avoid white flour and all articles of food 
made from it. No food for muscles, brain, 
or bones can be extracted from superfine 
flour. All these important food elements 
have been removed with the bran. Not only 
is white flour greatly defective in all nourish- 
ing qualities, but in numerous cases it is 
the actual cause of constipation. (Note chap- 
ter on Constipation.) Eat whole wheat 
bread instead of white bread whenever you. 
can get it. Whole wheat flour is just what 
its name implies. It is made from the whole 
grain of wheat. No bran or any part has 
been extracted. It is really a perfect food 
when eaten thus, for it contains in almost 
exrxt proportions the food elements neces- 
sary to properly nourish the body. See that 
this whole wheat flour is used instead of the 
white in every food requiring flour. You 
will find that this will make a great differ- 
ence in your general condition almost at 
once. You will feel better nourished, more 
energetic. 



152 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

Cultivate an appetite for acid fruits. They 
can be especially recommended at all times. 

Eat wholesome, nourishing foods, and 
avoid all fancy, highly-seasoned dishes. 

TWO MEALS EACH DAY ADVISED. 

If you experiment with your diet some- 
what you will, no doubt, find that two meals 
per day will agree with you better than three. 
You may not be aware that when the stomach 
is overworked the digestive juices are not 
supplied in proper quantities, and the result 
is the food seems to create no strength, no 
energy. This is caused by overeating or 
eating too often. The remedy is to eat less 
often and thus give the stomach a rest and 
allow it to store up gastric juice for the next 
meal. 

Whole wheat bread, eggs, salads with oil 
dressing and nourishing vegetables can be 
especially commended in building up the 
virile powers. Good fresh meats, when es- 
pecially craved and easily digested, are also 
useful, though it is usually well to avoid im- 
mature meats, such as veal, lamb and the 
like. 



DIET. 153 

Do not fail to keep in mind the necessity 
for the thorough enjoyment of food. Eat 
that which you keenly relish, and leave all 
articles of food strictly alone if not relished. 

In numerous cases fasting for a few meals, 
or even for several days, will be found of 
great value in bringing about a normal con- 
dition, though bef ora attempting a long fast 
it would be well to make sure of your posi- 
tion. " Be sure you are right, then go ahead/' 



154 



Chapter XXI. 



BATHING. 



IMPORTANCE OF A CLEAN SKIN, 

A clean skin is positively necessary to the 
enjoyment of the highest degree of health. 
Not because dirt is particularly injurious to 
the body, but because it clogs up the pores 
and lessens their activity, thus retaining im- 
purities or sending them to find other means 
for elimination. 

A writer of some reputation on one occa- 
sion maintained that the benefits of daily 
bathing was generally exaggerated. He 
stated truly that the skin was made up of 
millions of tiny scales that overlap each 
other like shingles on a roof top, and that 
as one scale was worn out, it was discarded 
and a new one was underneath to take its 
place, and he claimed that an undue amount 
#f bathing loosened these scales prematurely. 



BATHING. 155 

exposing the new scales before being 
sufficiently hardened. He also stated that 
the too frequent use of soap and hot water 
absorbed the natural oil of the skin, and had 
a tendency to make it dry and harsh. 

HOW THE BODY CLEANS ITSELF. 

There is unquestionably some truth in 
this writer's remarks, especially in his state- 
ment in reference to the too frequent use of 
hot water and soap. A hot bath should not 
be taken over two or three times per week. 
Some writers claim that a daily hot bath is 
necessary to cleanliness. 

This writer's assertion that the body cleans 
itself by casting off scales as they become 
dried is true, and if the body were exposed to 
the air to the same extent as that of any 
ordinary animal, one would not suffer very 
much if he never took a bath, though it 
would be well to note that many of the ani- 
mals and birds find enjoyment in occasional 
baths if there occurs an opportunity for 
taking them. It is the clothing which shuts 
out the air and which absorbs the impurities 
cast off from the body that makes frequent 



156 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

bathing so necessary. The activity of the 
pores of the skin is absolutely necessary to 
the acquirement of the highest degree of 
health. The importance of this cannot be 
overestimated. The writer was informed 
on one occasion by one who formerly suf- 
fered a great deal from rheumatic pains 
that he entirely removed the trouble by 
daily accelerating the action of the pores 
with aid of two soft bristle brushes which he 
used all over his body. 

EXCESS POSSIBLE IN ANYTHING. 

Unquestionably one can bathe too much. 
One can eat too much bread. Exercise can 
be taken too much. In fact, no matter how 
beneficial anything may be, it can be the 
means of producing injury if excess is 
allowed. 

Though it is certainly possible to bathe too 
much, the writer believes there is but little 
danger of this in any case. 

The accumulation of the perspiration and 
other impure matter eliminated through the 
pores makes a hot bath with plenty of soap 



BATHING. 157 

necessary at least two or three times per 
week. 

GREAT BENEFIT OF FRICTION BATHS. 

While treating yourself for sexual weak- 
nesses of any kind the morning exercise 
should always be followed by a friction 
bath. This bath is taken by brushing the skin 
all over with two soft bristle brushes. Use 
the brushes back and forth over every part 
of the skin until it is pink from the accel- 
erated circulation brought to the surface by 
the friction. 

The skin will naturally be very tender in 
the beginning, though it will soon become 
inured, and the brushes can be used for a con- 
siderable time with each treatment. 

The effect of this friction bath on the ap- 
pearance of the skin is wonderful. In a 
short time it will become as smooth and soft 
as velvet, and absolutely free from all pim- 
ples and blotches, if a rational system of 
diet is being followed. 

This friction bath should be followed im- 
mediately by a cold sitz bath, of about one 
minute's duration. A sitz bath is the im- 



158 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

mersion of the hips only in water, and it 
can be taken more conveniently in a tub 
made for the purpose. A small tub, or an 
ordinary washtub will serve, or a large bath- 
tub will do if one is agile enough to place 
the heels on the end and then lower the body 
in the water, allowing the feet to remain as 
placed. After sitting in the water about one 
minute, wet the body all over and dry quickly 
with a rough towel. 

If there are no conveniences for taking 
this sitz bath wet the body all over with cold 
water, and stoop down over a basin until you 
can easily bath the private parts in this cold 
water. 

EASILY TO BECOME INURED TO COLD WATER. 

The friction bath may be discontinued 
after recovery, but it will be found a 
powerful tonic in aiding the system to re- 
tain normal vigor, and should by no means 
be neglected. 

Many shrink from the use of cold water, 
and believe that they cannot become accus- 
tomed to it. This can easily be done with- 
out any shock worth mentioning if the proper 
process is adopted. Gradually accustom your- 



BATHING. 159 

self to it. Make the water a little colder each 
day. Many, however, find not the slightest 
difficulty in taking cold baths right from the 
first when they follow immediately after the 
exercises and friction bath. The circulation 
is so awakened by these influences that the 
body is sufficiently able to resist the shock, 
and the after effects are exceedingly pleas- 
ant. 

If cold after a cold bath always exercise 
until warm. This will insure against any 
possibility of ill-effects, 

IMPORTANCE OF ACTIVITY OF THE PORES. 

Do not forget that if the entire surface 
of the body was varnished over, death 
would ensue in a few hours, because of the 
accumulation of impurities that usually find 
their outlet through the pores. Nothing 
could prove the absolute necessity for regu- 
lar bathing more emphatically than this one 
fact. Of course, there are many who bathe 
only on rare occasions, and a few who never 
bathe at all, but they are the kind who are 
satisfied with merely existing, They do not 
live in the true sense of the word. In order 



160 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

to live, in order to feel the energy and powet 
of superb health, pulsating in your every 
nerve, your every muscle — in order to be 
thrilled with the power of life and health 
and joy, every physical function must be in 
perfect working order, and this cannot be 
possible unless the pores of the skin are 
kept cleaned and active by regular bathing. 



JLtU, 



Chapter XXII. 



IMPORTANCE OF PURE AIR. 



AIR IS A FOOD, 

Pure air is absolutely essential t@ life, t© 
health. One can exist on bad air, but to ex- 
ist does not necessarily mean living. Air 
usually seems to be of little importance. 
The average individual imagines that it has 
but little influence on his general health. 
There was never a more serious blunder, 
There is food in air. Oxygen is a f ood c It 
is just as necessary, in fact far more neces- 
sary, to life than any other element which 
enters into the constituents of the body, A 
man can live for sixty days without solid 
food; he can live for several days without 
water, but he can not live for five minutes 
without oxygen. Did you ever think of 
that? Consider the importance and enor- 
mous value of pure air, rich in this oxygen 



Iff POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

that the lungs may be liberally supplied 
with their needs. You cannot acquire or 
retain sexual or any kind of power for any 
length of time if this necessity for pure air 
is not recognized, 

SUPERSTITIOUS FEAR OF DRAUGHTS, 

Are you afraid of draughts? Well hurry 
up and rid yourself of this ridiculous fear. 
This has "dug" premature graves for thou- 
sands. Did you ever notice that the more a 
man feared draughts the more colds he 
seemed to acquire, the weaker he seemed to 
be, while the careless man who gave but 
little attention to that which is supposed to 
be essential for various cold seasons of the 
years, was stronger, and rarely, if ever, had 
a cold? The latter was stronger because 
his lungs were fed with a plentiful supply 
of oxygen at all times, and the thousands of 
little pores all over his body also had a 
chance to breathe. 

Do not waste your time by taking any of 
the treatment advised here unless you can 
at once make up your mind to feed the 
lungs and every part of the body with oxy„ 



IMKXRTANCE OF PURE AIR. 163 

gen. Do not sleep in a badly ventilated 
room. Open the windows wide — the wider 
the better. Cultivate a love for fresh air. 
Breathe it deeply at all times; bathe your 
body in it. It means life, health, strength. 
It is the greatest tonic in the world. It ab* 
sorbs the impurities that are thrown off 
from the body and assists greatly in accelerat- 
ing the process of elimination constantly 
going on through the pores. 

DELICATE PLANT COMPARED TO A WEAK 
BODY. 

Of course, if accustomed to smothering 
yourself with clothing, do not immediately 
adopt the other extreme. Your body is like 
a plant made delicate by being kept from 
sun and air If such a plant is immediately 
exposed to rough breezes and the direct 
rays of the sun, it is liable to suffer from 
this sudden change, but expose it a short 
time the first day, a little more the next day, 
gradually increasing each day, and finally it 
will become vigorous and hardy, capable of 
bearing any amount of exposure. A weak 
body is exactly like this plant. No more 



164 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

suitable comparison could be made. By 
coddling and extreme care, breathing the 
vile atmosphere of inclosed rooms over and 
over again, until actually rotten with the 
poisons emanating from the lungs, and by 
fear of all draughts and sunlight, one can 
easily deteriorate into a fragile plant, and 
will remain delicate and weak as long as 
that which creates this condition is allowed 
to exist. 

RIGHT ABOUT, FACE ! 

Turn over a new leaf at once. Pure air — 
not rotten air — was made to breathe ! In- 
closed air becomes rotten, foul, disease- 
breeding. 

BENEFITS OF AIR BATHS. 

The only way that cold air ever injured 
anyone was when it had frozen a part of his 
body. 

The writer takes an air bath daily. It is 
necessary to the acquirement and retain- 
ment of a highest degree of health. Take 
your exercise in your own room nude, with 
the windows open, and open them wider 
each day. Build the internal fire! Make 



IMPORTANCE OF PURE AIR. 165 

the blood warm your body while in this 
nude state by vigorous movements. 

The writer follows this practice in the 
coldest of weather. Often when the ther- 
mometer registered below zero he has exer- 
cised nude in his room with the windows 
wide open and with the wind blowing full 
upon him. Strange as this may seem to the 
average reader, this exercise in such cold 
atmosphere is most thoroughly enjoyed 
after a few movements have been made. Of 
course, when first coming from a warm bed 
one feels cold; but this passes away in a 
short time and there follows a feeling of 
exhilaration, or physical exaltation which 
is hard to describe. 

COLD AIR A GREAT TONIC. 

The more colds are feared and the more 
attempts made to protect yourself against 
them by coddling, the more colds you will 
acquire. This is an unfailing rule, and no 
one who gives the matter any attention can 
question its truth. The direct contact of 
the skin with air influences greater activity 
of the pores; this is occasioned because the 



166 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

circulation has been accelerated to the sur- 
face. Air baths have a most wonderfully 
beneficial effect in this way, and the import- 
ance of allowing the surface of the body to 
come in direct contact with the air as much 
as possible cannot be too strongly empha- 
sized. It will be a valuable means of assist- 
ing in the building of a vigorous, healthy 
nervous and muscular organism, though it 
is especially beneficial to the nervous system, 
having a quieting and strengthening effect 
on the entire nervous organism. 

Begin at once to cultivate a love for fresh 
pure air. It will almost immediately begin 
to increase the virile powers of manhood, 
and you will reap rewards from a habit of 
this kind that could not be purchased in any 
other way by all the wealth in Christendom, 



1«7 



Chapter XXIII. 



MENTAL INFLUENCE. 



GREAT POWER OF MIND OVER BODY, 

We have already mentioned the power of 
mental influence over the body under certain 
conditions, and in fact it possesses a great 
influence in any condition of health or dis- 
ease. In suggestive therapeutics and in 
Christian science, we find this influence 
given first place as a remedial agency, and 
they have built an elaborate system of treat- 
ment which apparently depends entirely on 
the faith of the patient. This is magnifying 
the power of mind over body unquestionably, 
but the importance of this must not be over- 
looked. 

Thousands of healthy human beings go 
about with a dread on their mind that they 
are suffering from some insiduous disease, 
when their ailment really exists only in their 



168 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

imagination. Such a condition, if continued 
long, will, however, produce actual disease, 
and this mental condition must be discour- 
aged as much as possible. Remember that 
disease or weakness is unnatural, and that 
the body, if given an opportunity, will actu- 
ally cure itself, and no matter how serious 
may be your trouble, vow that you will 
make the necessary efforts to secure health, 
and that you do not merely hope to secure 
it, but that you intend to see that you do 
one way or another. Use your will power. 
Put out of mind any thought or sugges- 
tion that any other results than those 
desired can possibly appear, and you 
will be amazed at the influence this will 
have toward bringing about recovery. 

HAVE AN OBJECT! BE SOMEBODY! 

"Every young man who desires to remain 
strong, or to regain his physical, intellectual 
and moral powers, should have an absorbing 
purpose in life. Live with an aim, and let 
that aim be high. The man who aims at the 
sun will shoot higher than the man who aims 
at the earth. If vou do not build a few 



MENTAL INFLUENCE. 169 

castles in the air, you never will own any 
that are built on the earth. Devote yourself 
with untiring diligence to some department 
of work. Determine what is to be your life- 
purpose, and devote yourself absorbingly to 
its attainment. Do not be contented with 
mediocrity. Rise above the masses. Attain 
to eminence. Be thorough from the very be- 
ginning. Ee diligent. And if you will thus 
devote yourself to the untiring attainment 
of some worthy purpose, there can be no 
question in regard to your future acquisition, 
your life will be worth something 1 ." — Sylvanus 
Stall D.D. 

GLOOMY THOUGHTS ARE ENEMIES. 

This influence of mind over body is of 
especial importance in all sexual troubles. 
Ailments of this nature seem to cast a gloom 
over the victim that is difficult to dissipate. 
But do not allow it to encompass you ! Fight 
it as you would an enemy, for it is an enemy 
and should be treated as such, Keep it as 
far away as possible. Be pleasant with your- 
self. Make yourself good company for your- 
self and for others. Cultivate a smiling 



170 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

countenance. If your features are growing 
into a chronic, worried expression, command 
them to smile occasionally. Think of some- 
thing funny as often as possible. Look at 
the humorous side of life. The best time to 
joke is when death stares you in the face. 
Anyway, why fear death? You only have 
to die once. It usually takes more courage 
to live than it does to die. Anybody can die ! 
That is simple; but there are occasions when 
it takes real bravery and determination to 
live. 

DO YOUR BEST, THEN STOP BOTHERING. 

Let your first efforts toward building the 
virile powers of superb manhood be spent in 
endeavoring to cultivate a cheerful counten- 
ance. Stop worrying at once. It is a waste 
of vital strength — it is a strain on nerves and 
muscles— it keeps you in a tense, rigid con- 
dition as though you were constantly on the 
alert foi fear of some terrible calamity. Do 
the best you can, and then say to yourself: 
" I don't care what happens. I've done my 
best I'm not at fault." 



MENTAL INFLUENCE. 171 

The most severe criticism is where you 
have a complaint to make against yourself. 
One can stand the criticism of others, but 
self-blame is the most cutting of all to a con- 
scientious person, Therefore, see that you 
have no cause for self-blame, and then stop 
bothering. 



172 



Chapter XXIV. 



CONSTIPATION. 



INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF THIS TROUBLE. 

If habitually constipated, any sexual 
trouble that may exist is seriously aggra- 
vated, and effective means should be adopted 
immediately on commencing treatment to 
remedy any tendency in this direction. 
Usually the adoption of a satisfactory diet 
and the daily use of ' the exercises recom- 
mended, will prove an effective remedy, but 
in case it does not, more harsh methods must 
be used for a time. Do not depend on pur- 
gative drugs under any circumstances. This 
will really make the trouble far more serious 
in character and ultimately render a cure 
much more difficult to reach. 

FOODS RECOMMENDED. 

Cultivate an appetite for all acid fruits, 
such as oranges, apples, pears, cherries, 



CONSTIPATION. 173 

strawberries, blackberries, etc. Avoid white 
flour as you would a poison. Many suffer 
seriously with this ailment from this one 
article of diet. Superfine white flour has a 
most seriously binding influence on the 
bowels, no matter in what form it may be 
eaten — in bread, biscuit or pastry. Eat 
whole-wheat bread when you can get it, and, 
if possible, have all articles of food requiring 
flour made w r ith whole-wheat flour (See 
chapter on Diet for reason). If your are 
careful not to eat too fast and also not to 
over-eat, and if you combine acid fruits with 
the whole-wheat bread, you will find usually 
that your trouble will almost immediately 
disappear, provided, of course, you take the 
exercises advised regularly. 

EFFECTIVE MEANS OF CURE. 

If, however, this does not bring relief, 
there are more effective means still that can 
be adopted to force the desired results. The 
massage or kneading process is a valuable 
assistant when all other means fail. Lie on 
the back. Now put a little sweet oil in the 
open hands, then bring them over the abdo- 



174 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

men in all directions, pressing down vigor- 
ously. After continuing this for from three to 
five minutes, roll the closed hand back and 
forth over the abdomen, pressing vigorously 
downward. In this part of the treatment 
the hand should travel in a circle around the 
abdomen. Beginning at the lower right 
hand side, then go upward on right side, 
over to upper left side, down left side to 
lower left side, then over to lower right 
side. This last kneading process, round and 
round the abdomen, should be continued 
from ten to fifteen minutes if case is at all 
serious. It should be productive of satisfac- 
tory results, though after waiting a reason- 
able time, you can then resort to the internal 
bath treatment ; that is, flushing the colon. 
This will, of course, produce the desired 
action, but it is well to avoid the use of this 
means if possible as the bowels should not be 
taught to depend on this unnatural means 
for elimination. It is, however, so much 
superior, so much more effective, than purga- 
tives that there is no comparison. Purga- 
tives cause serious injury, while this means 
of emptying the bowels produces no evil 



CONSTIPATION. 175 

results. The only objection is that should 
its use be continued for a long period, the 
bowels would lose tone, and actually depend 
upon this means for an action. 



176 



Chapter XXV. 



ABBREVIATED GENERAL INSTRUC- 
TION FOR BUILDING NERVOUS 
AND SEXUAL POWER. 

Rise when your desire for sleep has been 
satisfied. 

Take the exercises prescribed nude, while 
reclining- on your bed. 

Follow these exercises with a friction bath 

Then take a cold sitz and a sponge bath. 

If you eat three meals per day, make your 
breakfast very light, preferably of fruits. 

If your last meal is hearty, eat it as early 
as possible. 

Sometime during the day take a long walk, 
with many deep breathing exercises. 

Don't hurry ! 

Don't worry ! 

Take the special course of exercises just 



ABBREVIATED GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 177 

before retiring after becoming inured to 
the work. 

Don't cover too heavily when in bed. 

Open the windows wide. 

If you are a married man, occupy a bed 
by yourself. 

Retire early enough to allow yourself 
eight hours of sleep. 



178 



Chapter XXVI. 



DISEASES OF MEN. 

It was not originally intended that the 
above subject should be treated here. 

While writing on this book a young man 
called who had been inoculated with syphilitic 
poison about eight years previous. He had 
been treated with mercury by the highest 
authority on the medical board in one of our 
large Western cities. He supposed, of course, 
that such an eminent person would under- 
stand fully how to treat his trouble. He 
stated that, again and again in answer to his 
anxious inquiries, this physician assured him 
that the mercury in his system could easily 
be removed at any time, yet that after two 
years of the treatment, he began to make en- 
deavors to remove the mercury from his sys- 
tem, but in vain. For six years he continued 
these endeavors, and had secured no relief ; 
and the terrible tortures of mercurial poison- 



DISEASES OF MEN. 179 

ing that he described could not be fittingly 
depicted, and he stated that he would rather 
be inoculated with syphilis a thousand times 
than to have the smallest drop of mercury in 
his system. 

The experience of this young man, 
together with the influence of the other facts 
easily obtainable, caused the writer to fully 
realize the serious necessity for some practi- 
cal knowledge of these subjects. 

It has always been maintained that those 
who acquire such complaints fully deserve 
all they suffer. The writer does not hold 
such a belief. There are many who acquire 
the disease innocently, and even those w T ith 
a guilty conscience only deserve to suffer 
according to the penalties made by Nature, 
These diseases unquestionably entail great 
suffering, but it was never intended that they 
should cling to the victim month after month, 
year after year, and even on to the end of life 
itself. Nature made no such penalties as 
this. These awful penalties were made by 
medical science. They are being perpetrated 
to-day by this same so-called science, and the 
writer has added this subject that those i i 



180 POWERS #P SUPERB MANHOOD. 

the grasp of these horrible diseases may have 
an opportunity to escape after they have 
served the sentence that Nature demands as 
a punishment for their sins. 

He has no desire to belittle the loathsome 
character of these diseases. Nature made 
them bad enough, but medical science has 
made them produce the most horrible, the 
most revolting objects that the human eye 
ever rested upon. 

Methods of cure by natural means for the 
various sexual diseases are here presented. 
The results are as sure, if these methods 
are followed, as the conclusion derived from 
a mathematical problem, for the means of 
cure advised are based on natural laws, and 
cannot fail. 

That there may be no question as to the 
authority of the writer in prescribing means 
of curing these diseases, he has purposely 
quoted every symptom and method of cure 
from works of members of the medical pro- 
fession who have been able to go beyond the 
rules and regulations of the standard author- 
ises recognized in their medical schools. 

Do not make the mistake of adopting only 



DISEASES OF MEN. 181 

a part of the means of cure suggested. This 
will simply be wasting your time. Either 
try the methods advised here as given, or 
else leave it alone altogether. Of course, in 
troubles of this character it is far better to 
consult a physician, if you can find one 
familiar with rational means of curing these 
diseases, but if you value your sexual and 
general physical powers, do not, under any 
circumstances, allow any one to drug you to 
death. Drugs are useful only for antiseptic 
purposes and as a germicide. 

Keep these facts plainly in view. 



182 



Chapter XXVII. 



GONORRHEA. 



COMMENTS ON THIS DISEASE BY VARIOUS 
AUTHORITIES. 

" What unspeakable misery is entailed by 
suppressing gonorrhea. If done by means 
of injections, it frequently causes stricture ; 
and to what misery this condition leads is 
best known to the many thousand victims of 
perverse medical treatment who suffer from 
it. Furthermore, frightful ravages are made 
alike by syphilis, and the mercury prescribed 
for it. Syphilis is the result of excesses and 
uncleanness. It can be cured only by cleans- 
ing every fibre of the body. Drug physicians, 
by treating merely the effects of the sin, can 
accomplish nothing. Under a natural regime 
impure desires would be impossible. It is 
pitiful to see how powerless the drug schools 
are against these forms of disease. Any 
portion or portions of the body may be de* 



GONORRHEA 183 

stroyed by either the one cr the other at any 
period after the infection. And yet nothing 
is more simple, prompt and rapid than cur. 
ing radically both gonorrhea and syphilis by 
hygienic means." — A. F. Reinhold. F/i.D., M.D. 

Dr. H. N. Guernsey, in his excellent little 
book, " Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects/' 
says: "When gonorrhea is contracted, al- 
though frequently suppressed by local treat- 
ment in the form of injections, it is never 
perfectly cured thereby. No; the hidden 
poison runs on for a lifetime, producing 
strictures, gleet and kindred diseases; finally, 
in old men, a horrible prostatis results, from 
which the balance of one's life is rendered 
miserable, indeed. If inflammation of the 
lungs supervenes, there is often a transmis- 
sion of the virus to these vital organs, caus- 
ing what is termed 'plastic pneumonia/ where 
one lobule after another becomes gradually 
sealed up, till nearly the whole of both lungs 
become impervious to air, and death results 
from asphyxia." 

11 The causes of gonorrhea, in the male, are 
produced from having intercourse with a 
woman having this disease, or from a woman 



184 POWERS OF SUPEKii MAiNHOOD. 

having simply inflammation of the uterus, 
'whites/ dysmenorrhea, or even if inter- 
course be had during the menstrual period. 
When produced in this last way, the man 
and woman — or husband and wife, as some- 
times happens — must otherwise lead irregu- 
lar and unhygenic lives ; but established and 
reliable authorities have asserted that it may 
arise from intercourse with women who 
themselves have not the disease."— John 
Cowan, M. D. 

In his book entitled "Transmission of 
Life," Dr. George H. Napheys, in speaking 
of this disease, says: "It may bring about 
life-long suffering, The passage from the 
bladder becomes inflamed and contracted. 
That organ itself is very apt to partake of 
the inflammation, and become irritable and 
sensitive. Spermatorrhea and impotence, 
with all their misery, may follow, and the 
whole economy may partake of the infection. 
An eruption of the skin, and an obstinate 
form of rheumatism, both wholly intractable 
to ordinary remedies, are more common than 
even many physicians imagine. Not infre* 
quently these troublesome chronic, rheumatic 



GONORRHEA. 185 

complaints which annoy men in middle and 
advanced life are the late castigations which 
nature is inflicting for early transgressions. 
"Medical records and journals are generally 
agreed that it is possible for pure and unof- 
fending married people to suffer from an 
affection which closely resembles gonorrhea. 
This is caused by an acrid discharge from 
the female parts, or may be developed at the 
time of the monthly sickness of the wife. 
Physicians of unquestioned ability and honor 
declare this to be a fact, and assert that it is 
important that this should be known, as 
ignorance of this fact has led to unjust suspi- 
cions and cruel accusations, resulting in the 
disruption of families and the suffering of 
untold misery." — Sylvanus Stall, D.D. 

SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASE. 

Dr. Druitt observes : " The patient first 
experiences a little itching or tingling at the 
orifice of the urethra, together with a sense 
of heat and soreness along the underside of 
the penis, and slight pain and scalding in 
making water. A little discharge soon 
exudes from the urethra; at first it is thm 



186 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

and whitish, but it soon becomes thick and 
puriform; and when the disease is at its 
height it is yellow or greenish, or tinged with 
blood. The penis swells, the gland is of a 
peculiar cherry color, is intensely tender, 
and often excoriated. In consequence of this 
tumefied state of the urethra, the stream of 
urine is small and forked, and passed with 
much straining and with severe pain. In 
addition to these symptoms there occur, in 
some cases, long-continued and painful erec- 
tions, constituting chordee, or a highly pain- 
ful and crooked state of the private member." 
" The symptoms, appearing between the 
second and fifth day, are at first slight, there 
being an uneasy, tickling and smarting sensa- 
tion at the mouth of the canal, which, on ex- 
amination, is found to be more florid than 
usual, and moistened with a small quantity 
of colorless and viscid fluid, which glues the 
lips of the meatus together. This moisture, 
after a time, loses its clear, watery appear- 
ance, and assumes a milky hue. These early 
symptoms are present when the contagion is 
yet confined to the extreme portion of the 
mrethra* This first stage generally lasts f r t 



GONORRHEA. 187 

two to four days, when the symptons gradu- 
ally become more intense, until, in about a 
week after exposure, the second or inflam- 
matory stage may be said to commence. 
During this stage the mucus membrane 
covering the glands has a reddened and angry 
look, the extremity of the organ is swollen, 
the discharge — now of a thick, yellowish, 
creamy color — has become copious, there is 
intense pain in passing the urine, excited by 
the irritation produced by the salts contained 
in the urine, and in consequence of the 
urethra being contracted and more or less 
obstructed by the discharge the stream is 
forked, or otherwise irregular. A person 
with gonorrhea is apt to be troubled with 
nocturnal erections, when it often happens 
that the penis is bent in the form of an arc, 
producing chordee, caused by the effused 
lymph on the under-surface of the organ 
rendering it less extensible than the remain- 
ing portion. It sometimes happens that sym- 
pathetically there is enlargment and tender- 
ness of one or more glands in th© groin, pro- 
ducing buboes. This second stage lasts from 
it te three weeks. This is followed by th@ 



188 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

third or final stage, which is characterized 
only by the disappearance of the more promi- 
nent symptoms, and a gradual return to 
health, the discharge becoming less and less 
purulent, and finally completely disappear 
ing. This last stage may last for weeks or 
months, depending on whether it is treated 
and the mode of treating it." — John Cowan, 
M. D. 

METHODS OF TREATMENT. 

" In the treatment of gonorrhea, the indica- 
tions are first to restore the general health ; 
and second to allay the local inflammation. 
It is a fact that cannot be gainsaid, that the 
men who acquire such diseases are almost 
invariably gross, as well as licentious, in 
their habits of living. The first requirement 
in the direction of a cure (and this will apply 
with equal force to all acute diseases of the 
sexual organs) is that the patient give up 
the use of tobacco, alcoholic liquors, milk, 
flesh, grease, seasoning and a stimulating 
diet. He should live on the very plainest of 
food, such as baked apples and potatoes, thin 
gruel, unleavened bread, tomatoes, prunes^ 



GONORRHEA. 189 

oranges, etc. During the stage of acute in- 
flammation, but very little of any kind of 
food should be taken ; perfect rest, in a bed 
or on a lounge, should be observed. Next in 
importance to a right diet is bathing the 
whole body with tepid water, this to be 
repeated until the superficial heat is reduced 
to a normal standard. For the local treat- 
ment, sitz baths of tepid or cool water, vary- 
ing in time from fifteen minutes to an hour — 
changing the water, if necessary — will afford 
decided relief. The sitz bath should be 
repeated as often as the inflammatory symp- 
toms are aggravated. When resting, the 
genital parts should be enveloped in wet 
cloths. 

The adoption of the above mode of treat- 
ment will effect a prompt and permanent 
cure, when a drug treatment, with its calomel, 
sugar of lead, caustic, copabia, cubebs, tur- 
pentine, etc., will not only aggravate the 
disease, but perhaps produce gleet, buboes 
or stricture."— John Cowan, M.D. 

" Gonorrhea is in the beginning an inflam- 
matory disease, and for this reason should be 
treated actively. The cooling wet compress 



190 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

upon the part affected, and the sitting bath, 
have great power over the disease ; but it 
cannot be cut short speedily in all cases. It 
must, in fact, have a sort of course of its 
own ; still a great deal may be done in miti- 
gating its violence, and consequently in 
shortening its duration. The general treat- 
ment may be considered the same as for 
syphilis. The patient should be very care- 
ful not to overheat his blood, become too 
much frightened, or stand too long on the 
feet at a time. Do what we will, such cases 
sometimes run on for months ; but gleet, so 
far as I am aware, does not follow this dis- 
order when w r ater (natural) treatment is 
practiced. 

It may be of interest to some to learn that 
there is no drug specific for this disease. If 
a medicine ever does any good under such 
circumstances, it is because of its effects on 
the constitution generally, and not of any 
direct powder it may have over it. But drug- 
ging is a poor policy, making the best of it, 
and generally leaves the patient only the 
worse." — Joel Shaw, M.D . 

You will note that the above methods of 



GONORRHEA. 191 

treatment suppresses the disease ; first, by 
thinning the blood and by removing all im- 
purities from it with a very low diet ; second, 
by assisting towards the elimination of im- 
purities through the pores of the entire body 
with many baths each day; third, by sitz 
baths and by wet cloths applied to the organ 
itself, day and night if possible, the inflam- 
mation is allayed and much of the poison 
that h discharged ordinarily in pus through 
the urethra is taken up and discharged 
through the pores. 

Thus the disease is actually hurried 
through its regular course, and complete re- 
covery, with no possible after-results, is soon 
reached. 

If so occupied that the advice of these 
physicians cannot be closely followed, here 
is practically the same treatment modified to 
suit a busy man's needs: 

A friction bath immediately upon rising. 
(See chapter on Bathing.) 

Follow immediately by a cold site bath. 
(See chapter on Bathing for description of 
a sitz bath.) Stay in this water from five to 
thirty minutes, as long as you can, and recu- 



192 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

perate with a feeling of warmth. Before 
rising from the bath wet the skin all over 
and put on underclothing at cuce without drying 
the skin. 

Secure a heavy pair of trunks that you can 
w r ear next the skin, something like very 
short swimming trunks. Inside these trunks 
you should wrap cloths wet in salted water 
around the scrotum and the affected organ, 
and wear this all day while at work, re-wet- 
ting cloths whenever necessary. 

It is far better to eat no breakfast, though 
if you must eat, confine diet to appetizing 
fruits. 

Keep as quiet as you can during the day. 

Eat lightly as possible at all meals. In 
fact, the less you eat, the quicker recovery 
can be expected. 

Take cold sitz bath, same as in the morn- 
ing, again before retiring. Put on night 
clothes without drying the skin, and arrange 
some way to keep the scrotum and affected 
organ swathed in cloths wet with water, in 
which some salt has been placed, during the 
entire night. 

If you must use an injection, have a phy- 
sician or druggist subscribe a very mild solu- 



GONORRHEA. 1*8 

tion of sulphate of zinc or of permanganate 
of potash. Though it may take longer to 
recover without the aid of these drugs, you 
will be better off in the end if they are not 
used. 

The value of encouraging your desire for 
water in every possible way can hardly be 
overestimated. Keep water near you all 
during the day and night, and drink very 
freely at frequent intervals. While the dis- 
ease is present from two to three quarts 
every twenty-four hours should be drunk, 
though if the quantity was increased it 
would unquestionably facilitate rec@very. 



194 



Chapter XXVIII. 



GLEET. 



COMMENTS ON THE DISEASE. 

" Gleet is an old or chronic discharge, aris- 
ing from badly treated or neglected gonor- 
rhea. It is often a troublesome matter, and 
many who have it are impotent besides, low- 
spirited, and desirous of making away with 
themselves. It is a singular fact that men 
who become bankrupt in this part of their 
organism, are apt to be tormented with 
suicidal propensities."— Joel Shaw, M.D. 

" Gleet. When an attack of gonorrhea is 
badly treated, and not thoroughly cured, there 
may follow immediately, or perhaps not until 
after an interval of several weeks, or even 
months, a thin, watery discharge from the 
urethra, which is termed gleet. This dis- 
charge may continue for months, and in 
many cases, for years. In most cases of gleet 



GLEET. 195 

the discharge is the only symptom. In some 
instances, however, there may be a feeling 
of uneasiness in the organ or peritoneum, or 
an itching about the glands, which may either 
be constant or attendant only upon the pas- 
sage of the urine. In some cases the dis- 
charge is constant, and sufficiently copious to 
stain the linen, but in the majority it is per- 
ceptible only in the morning on rising. It is 
a well-established fact, that persons infected 
with gleet will communicate gonorrhea to 
healthy subjects, and that by aggravation 
gleet is readily transformed into gonorrhea. 
A hearty meal, alcoholic stimulants, sexual 
indulgence, violent exercise, exposure to 
sudden changes of temperature, may bring 
on a copious purulent discharge, attended by 
tumefaction of the parts, scalding in urina- 
tion, and all the symptoms of acute gonor- 
rhea." — John Cowan, M. D. 

TREATMENT ADVISED. 

" Gleet is to be managed on general prin- 
ciples ; the system is to be purified and in- 
vigorated by baths, diet, etc., and the private 
member is to be kept constantly swathed in 



196 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

wet cloths. In all of these cases vegetarian 
diet is of great importance." — Joel Shaw, M. D. 
" In the treatment of gleet the directions 
for general treatment in gonorrhea should be 
adopted. For the local treatment the sitz 
bath is indicated. Commencing with tepid 
water, which will slightly increase the dis- 
charge at first, the temperature should be 
daily lowered, so that at the end of a week 
very cold water may be used. This bath may 
be applied two or three times a day, fifteen 
to twenty minutes at a time. The case of a 
gentleman who had gleet at this moment 
occurs to me. It had been of some two 
years' duration, the patient having tried the 
best physicians in vain. Drugs, applications 
and injections of all kinds had been tried, 
only to make the discharge seem worse. The 
patient had the offer of a sea trip on a sailing 
vessel, which he accepted. The trip lasted 
for nearly three months, during which time, 
owing to peculiar circumstances, the food 
was not only of the plainest in quality, but 
of the smallest in quantity. The patient 
landed in better health than he had for a 
long time experienced, and entirely cured of 



GLEET. 197 

his gleet. I mention this case simply to 
show that in this disease, as in almost all 
others of a sexual nature, if the patient would 
adopt a line 6f life involving in it pure air 
and plenty of it, simple diet and little of it, 
rest, cleanliness of body, freedom from 
tobacco, alcoholic liquors and sexual inter- 
course, it would absolutely be all that would 
be required to cure him of his disease and 
restore him to perfect health." — John Cowan, 
M.D. 

You will note that the principal difference 
in the treatment of gonorrhea and gleet is 
that in the treatment of gleet, abundance of 
exercise is advised, while in acute gonorrhea 
no more exercise should be taken than is 
absolutely necessary. If gonorrhea becomes 
chronic, however, it should be treated the 
same as gleet. 



198 



Chapter XXIX 



STRICTURE OF THE URETHRA. 



COMMENTS ON STRICTURE. 

" Strictures of the urethra may be classified 
as transitory or permanent — transitory when 
the result of muscular spasm, congestion 
or inflammation — permanent, when through 
wrong treatment of the urethral canal. 
Transitory stricture of the inflammatory 
form is produced by gonorrhea and its mal- 
treatment, and the injudicious use of cathe- 
ters or bougies. It is known by local heat, 
pain or swelling, with inability to urinate, 
unless with extreme pain. When of the 
spasmodic variety, it is usually seated at the 
neck of the bladder. It may be induced by 
violent exercise, long retention of the urine, 
or sexual excesses. Permanent stricture may 
b* located in any part of the urethra, but it 
more frequently occurs in the membraneous 



STRICTURE OF THE URETHRA. lft 

and bulbous portions of the canal. It gen- 
erally comes on slowly and insidiously. The 
individual first observes a few drops of water 
remain after the whole seems to have been 
discharged, then notices a fine spiral or 
divided stream, and lastly, discharges his 
urine by drops only, requiring a long time to 
empty the bladder. It occasionally happens 
that the patient loses all control, and the 
urine dribbles away continually/ ' — John 
Cowan, M. D. 

METHODS OF TREATMENT ADVISED. 

"The usual methods in treating stricture 
are by the introduction of bougies, the appli- 
cation of caustic, or by incision — all impos- 
sible in the home treatment of the disease. 
If the patient will but firmly resolve to lead 
a rigidly plain and simple life — absolute 
freedom from all stimulating food and drink, 
tobacco, flesh meat, etc., eating less of plain 
food than the system is capable of assimilat- 
ing, living a strictly continent life, and, 
along with the every-day general bath, to 
take twice a day, for half an hour at a time, 
a cool or cold water site bath, drinking noth- 



200 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

ing but pure water, and as much of it as may 
be desired, he will, in the course of from 
one to three months, be thoroughly cured of 
transitory stricture, and in from four to 
twelve months — depending much on the pre- 
vious habits of the individual — he will be 
cured of permanent stricture, and that with- 
out any of the dangers of after-results attend- 
ant on the introduction of bougies, caustic, 
etc. The very worst cases of permanent 
stricture, after long trials and failures with 
bougies, etc., have in this way been perma- 
nently removed and effectually cur ed." — John 
Cowan, M.D. 

" Stricture is sometimes a result of gonor- 
rhea, as well as of syphilis, and may often be 
relieved by the cold compress, the cold sitting 
bath, the cold general bath, wet sheet pack, 
etc. The sooner it is treated, the better the 
prospect of a cure without surgical operation. 
A thorough course of hunger (fasting) cure is 
excellent in cases of this kind." — Joel Shaw, 
M.D. 



201 



Chapter XXX. 

CHANCROID (SOMETIMES CALLED 
SOFT CHANCRE.) 

COMMENTS ON THIS DISEASE BY DIFFERENT 
AUTHORITIES. 

11 A chancroid is a painful ulcer or sore, 
which secretes a contagious matter, usually 
appearing upon the genitals within a few 
days after exposure. If not properly treated, 
these sores often last several months. There 
may be several present at the same time. In 
many cases, a painful swelling occurs in the 
groin, or on one side or on both, from en- 
lagement of the glands in this region. The 
swelling may disappear by absorption, or 
suppurate and form an abscess. This form 
of veneral disease does not give rise to con- 
stitutional symptoms." — A. A, Kellogg, M.D. 

The following are the symptoms of a chan- 
croid when fully formed : 



202 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

" Its outline is circular, unless modified by 
the shape of the solution of continuity in 
which it is implanted ; it has a punched-out 
appearance; the edges are jagged, abrupt 
and sharply cut, and do not adhere closely to 
the subadjacent tissues; the fluid secretion 
is copious and purulent, and it is surrounded 
by an areola which varies in width and depth 
of color with the degree of inflammation 
present. They are more frequently multiple 
than single ; but when one chancroid appears 
at the outset as the immediate result of con- 
tagion, others are apt to spring up around it 
from successive inoculation, since the ori- 
ginal ulcer pours out an abundant secretion, 
and its presence confers no immunity against 
others." 

In the comparison of the three poisons of 
gonorrhea, the chancroid and syphilis, Bum- 
stead, in his " Venereal Diseases," says: 

" The only property common to them all 
is their communication, for the most part, by 
contact with the genital or gans. The 
poisons of gonorrhea and of the chancroid 
are alike, in that their action is limited and 
never extends to the general system : nor does 



CHANCROID. 203 

one attack afford the slightest protection 
against a second. They differ in that the 
poison of gonorrhea may arise spontaneously, 
while that of chancroid, so far as we know, 
never thus originates ; that gonorrhea, chiefly 
affects the surface — true ulceration being 
rarely induced — and, in its complications, 
most frequently attacks parts connected with 
the original seat of the disease by a continu- 
ous mucus surface, as the prostate gland, 
bladder and testicles ; while the chancroid, 
on the contrary, is an ulcer involving the 
whole thickness of the integument or mucous 
membrane, and its complications are seated 
in the absorbent vessels and ganglia. It 
would also appear that the poisons of these 
two affections are limited to one common 
vehicle — namely, pus. This conclusion is 
sustained by the fact that neither the poison 
of gonorrhea nor that of the chancroid ever 
reaches the general circulation, and it is well 
known that pus globules are not capable of 
absorption. When the purulent matter of a 
chancroid enters the absorbent vessels, as 
•«eurs in the f ormatism of a virulent bubo, it 
is arrested by the first chain of lymphatic 



204 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

ganglia and goes no further. The syphilitic 
virus is alone capable of infecting the system 
at large, and of affording protection by its 
presence against subsequent attacks. Unlike 
the poisons of gonorrhea and the chancroid, 
it is not limited to purulent matter, but 
exists in the blood, in the fluids of the 
secondary lesions, in the semen, and probabty 
in other secretions. There is no opposition 
whatever between these three poisons ; they 
may all coexist in the same person, who may 
at the same time have gonorrhea, a chanc- 
roid, and a chancre of the syphilitic lesion. ,, 
" The chancroid arises only in consequence 
of contagion from its like. It is most gen- 
erally found in the vicinity of the genital 
organs, although it is sometimes found in 
urethra, vagina and rectum, or wherever 
there is a mucous surface. It is rarely met on 
the head or face, where, on the contrary, the 
initial lesion of syphilis is not uncommon. 
The vehicle of the chancroid virus is the 
secretion of the ulcer, which, if it be inserted 
beneath the epidermis of any other part of 
the body, a chancroid is equally the result." 
— J@kn Cowan, M. D. 



CHANCROID. 205 

TREATMENT ADVISED. 

" Treatment.— Keep the sore clean, employ 
a restricted diet, practice absolute continence, 
and refrain from active exercise for a few- 
days. Meat, stimulants, spices and tobacco 
should be carefully avoided. The specific 
poison may be destroyed by touching the 
sore with a strong caustic of some sort. — A* 
A. Kellogg, M.D. 

"In the treatment of chancroid, prompt 
attention to the general health of the individ- 
ual is almost all that is required, for the 
disease, being a self-limited one, it will get 
well in the absence of all treatment, other 
than that of perfect cleanliness of the parts. But 
when not promptly attended to by the adop- 
tion of a strict diet of plain food and bathing 
it is apt to be followed by a bubo. If the 
pustule is noticed the second or third day 
after contagion, it can be destroyed by burn- 
ing with nitrate of silver ; but after this time 
— say, within from three to six days — nitrate 
of silver will be too feeble, and it will require 
the application of a much more powerful 
caustic, as nitric of sulphuric acid, applied by 
means of a glass rod with a rounded extrem- 



20S POWERS OF SUPERB MANH«0». 

ity, although a simple piece of wood-— an 
ordinary lucifer match — will do. On the 
acid first touching the ulcer, the pain for an 
instant will be very severe, but it becomes 
much less acute on subsequent applications, 
of which there should be several to render 
the destruction complete. Great care must 
be taken to prevent the acid from touching 
the neighboring surfaces, which should be 
protected by dry lint or other material. 
When it is too late to apply the acid, cloths 
wet in water should be kept on the parts 
affected, and often changed. When the 
application of acid has produced suppura- 
tion, the wet (linen) cloths should also be 
employed. This, with the perfect cleanli- 
ness of the parts, and perfect cleanliness of 
the cloths used, and careful attention to the 
general health, will always result in a cure." 
— John Cowan, M. D. 

A physician of long experience with these 
diseases informed the writer that if a piece 
of absorbent cotton, wet in " Black Wash," 
which any druggist or physician can pre- 
scribe, is kept on the sore continually, night 
and day, the disease germ will be destroyed 



CHAN€ROI» 2*7 

and the sore healed in but a short time, pro- 
vided the habits of life are strictly in conformity 
to the ordinary laws of hygiene and health. If 
the sore is under the foreskin of the organ 
this can easily be done. Merely draw the 
foreskin back, place the piece of wet cotton 
on the sore, and then draw the foreskin down 
over the cotton, Place fresh pieces of wet 
cotton on the sore night and morning. If 
the sore appears where this cannot be done, 
other means will have to be devised to hold 
the wet cotton on the sore. 

The above mentioned drug will be found 
far safer and surer to use in combination 
with the hygienic treatment than those pre- 
scribed by Dr. Cowan, though the reader can 
take his choice. 



Chapter XXXI. 



BUBOES. 



COMMENTS ON THE DISEASE. 

Bumstead divides buboes into three classes: 
First; the simple, inflammatory bubo, the 
symptoms of which are a swelling in the 
groin, attended with tenderness on pressure 
and pain, which is aggravated by pressure or 
the standing posture. The gland is felt to 
be somewhat enlarged, but is still movable 
beneath the integument, which preserves its 
normal color. This condition may last for 
an indefinite period, during the continuation 
of the ulcer, or even after its cicatrization, 
and yet finally disappear without suppura- 
tion. In simple inflammatory bubo, most 
frequently, only one gland is affected; if 
others are involved, they are commonly so 
to a less degree. In less fortunate cases, the 
inflammatory symptoms increase in severity; 



BUBOES. 209 

the tumor acquires larger dimensions, and 
becomes adherent to the skin and tinder- 
lying fascia, so that it is no longer movable ; 
the pain and tenderness are increased; motion 
is difficult ; the skin becomes reddened ; sup- 
puration is ushered in with a chill; the 
presence of matter is indicated by a soft 
spot in the midst of the general hardness, 
and soon after by distinct fluctuation; and 
although resolution is still possible, yet com- 
monly the contents of the abscess are dis- 
charged through an opening in the integu- 
ment formed by the process of ulceration. 

Second; the virulent bubo, which receives 
its names from the fact that the pus which it 
contains is contagious, and will upon arti- 
ficial inoculation give rise to a chancroid. 
A virulent bubo is due to the absorption of 
virus from the surface of a chancroid, and its 
conveyance, by means of the lymphatics, to 
the ganglion. It is usually situated on the 
same side as the chancroid, but sometimes 
upon the opposite side, and sometimes bo>* 
groins are effected, especially when the 
ulcer is upon any part in the median line. 
Prior to its spontaneous or artificial opening, 



21§ POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

the course of a virulent bubo is that of a 
simple bubo, and the patient should under- 
stand that the early symptoms of the two 
are identical ; though the distinction between 
them is fully justified by the inevitable sup- 
puration and specific properties of the one, 
and the possible resolution and simple char- 
acter of the other. 

Third; the indolent bubo, the inflamma 
tion of which is of a subacute character, 
closely resembling the well-known scrofulous 
inflammation of the glands of the neck in 
children. There may be a moderate amount 
of pain, tenderness on pressure, and difficulty 
of motion, although these are rarely severe 
or of long continuance. The tumor very 
slowly enlarges, perhaps to the size of a 
hen's egg; the skin covering it becomes thin, 
and of a- livid red color, and fluctuation can 
be detected without being ushered in by 
chills and fevers, as in the case of inflam- 
matory bubo. After a time several open- 
ings form spontaneously, and there escapes 
a thin, flaky, watery-looking fluid. 

" Buboes. This is an affection of the lym- 
phatic ganglion, dependent, in the great 



BUBOES. 211 

majority of cases, upon the presence of a 
chancroid, although they may be caused by 
gonorrhea or sexual excess. A bubo, with a 
primary syphilitic sore, or chancre, which is 
accompanied by induration of the ganglia, 
which never suppurates unless under the 
influence of some additional exciting cause. 
The occurrence of buboes is favored by a 
scrofulous constitution, by wrongly-treated 
chancroids, by mechanical violence, undue 
exercise, excesses in diet, and by sexual 
intercourse during the existence of a chanc- 
roid or gonorrhea." — John Cowan, M.D. 

TREATMENT ADVISED FOR THIS DISEASE. 

" The existence of buboes usually indicate 
the presence of a soft or hard chancre or 
chancres, and immediate means should be 
adopted to destroy the disease germs in 
these sores. The buboes will usually begin 
to disappear when this is done." 

" The object to be aimed at in the treat- 
ment of buboes is to subdue inflammation 
and avert suppuration, if possible. To this 
end, perfect rest and a low diet of plain, 
simple food, is of the first importance. In 



212 P0WEJLS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

the early stages, cold wet cloths, frequently 
renewed, should be constantly kept on the 
swelling. Three or four times a day the 
parts may be fomented for fifteen or twenty 
minutes at a time, and then immediately 
after covered with cold wet cloths, over which 
dry ones should be placed. Twice a day a 
sitz bath, moderately cool, may be employed. 
The close observance of these rules in the 
early stages will certainly prevent suppura- 
tion ; but should the bubo indicate by its 
tenseness and throbbing pain the commence- 
ment of suppuration, warm wet cloths should 
be constantly employed until matter forms, 
when, if the abscess does not open spontan- 
eously, it should be cut with a lancet." — John 
Cowan, M. D. 



213 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



SYPHILIS. 



COMMENTS ON HOW THIS DREADED DISEASE 

IS ACQUIRED, AND OTHER INFORMATION 

IN REFERENCE TO IT BY VARIOUS 

AUTHORITIES. 

11 Syphilis is more frequently communica- 
ted by impure coition, although there are 
various other ways of acquiring the disease. 
It has been sometimes caught by sucking the 
nipple of an infected wet nurse ; by infected 
saliva communicated in the act of kissing; 
by drinking out of a cup that had previously 
been used by a syphilitic patient ; by lying 
in a bed which had been antecedently occu- 
pied by a person laboring under the dis- 
ease ; by being bled with an infected 
lancet ; by being shaved with an infected 
razor ; by the attendance of an infected mid- 
wife, and the disease is said even to have 
communicated through the breath of one 
tainted with the malady*"— Joel Shaw^ M.B* 



214 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

" Syphilis is propagated in various ways, but 
in most cases it depends principally upon 
sexual intercourse. Being an infectious dis- 
ease, the presence of the virus, when 
brought in contact with surfaces covered 
with thin epidermis, or when denuded of its 
cuticle, it is transmitted from one individual 
to another. ,, — John Cowan, M. D. 

Dr. Napheys, in j speaking of the ulcer- 
which form in the mouth, says: " The dis- 
charge from them is a poison, and can con- 
vey the disease, and so can a drop of blood 
from the infected person." 

Dr. Hollick also says : " It is not positively 
known whether the semen itself from a man 
who has syphilis will give it to the woman 
with whom he cohabits. That is, suppose he 
contracts syphilis and is cured so far that 
there is no sore from which the woman can 
be infected, may she be so from the semen ? 
There is good reason to suppose she may, in 
the same way that she would be from the 
man's blood. " The same author also says: 
"Most usually the child inherits syphilis 
from its mother, who may contract it from 
ike father witkomt keisg aware of what is 



SYPHILIS. 215 

the matter. But the child may also be af- 
fected from the father through the semen, 
which may, undoubtedly, be contaminated 
by syphilis. In all probability the disease 
affects the seminal animalculse, making them 
feeble and imperfect, so that if they impreg- 
nate, the resulting offspring will be feeble 
and imperfect also. Probably this is one 
reason why women, when impregnated by 
syphilitic men, are so apt to miscarry. The 
embryo has not life enough to retain itself 
in the womb. Through how many genera- 
tions syphilis may run before it becomes ex- 
tinct we do not know, but with each remove 
it seems to become more modified and 
lighter, till at last it probably merges into 
some ordinary form of disease, especially 
scrofula." 

Dr. Hollick says: "The father may be so 
far well that he will not disease the mother 
by connection, but he will beget a child dis- 
eased through the semen, and this child will 
infect its own mother before its birth." 

The same author says: "The poisoa by 
syphilis does not reside in the sores ©nly, 
btit infests the blood of the patient. If blesd 



216 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

be taken from the man who has syphilis, and 
inoculated into another man, it will give him 
syphilis, the same as if he had been inocu- 
lated with matter from the chancre/' 

Upon the subject of inspection and protec- 
tion, Dr. Guernsey, in " Plain Talks," says : 
4 'There is no safety among impure or loose 
women, whether in private homes or in the 
very best regulated houses of illfame ; even 
in Paris, where, after women have been care- 
fully examined and pronounced free from any 
infecting condition, the first man who visits 
on e of them often carried away a deadly enemy 
in his blood which had lurked in conceal- 
ment beyond the keen eye of the inspector. 
A young man, or a man at any age, is in far 
greater danger amidst company of this stamp 
than he would be with a clear conscience and 
pure character in the midst of the wildest 
forest full of all manner of poisonous ser- 
pents and wild beasts of every description. 
A knowledge of the above facts should be 
enough to chill the first impulse and to make 
any man who respects his own w r ell-being 
turn away and flee from the destruction that 
awaits him/' 



SYPHILIS. 217 

An intelligent physician, who has given 
much time and study to the consideration of 
this subject, in writing says : " In the great 
cities it is fearfully prevalent, including both 
sexes and all grades of society. We do not 
doubt that more than 25 per cent, of the 
whole population is more or less tainted with 
it, and the greater number innocently. Nor 
is it at all confined to the indigent and 
degraded. It holds just as firm, though con- 
cealed and held in check, in the fashionable 
clubs and stately mansions of the opulent as 
in the alleys and back slums of the dregs of 
our population. No man, no woman, we 
care not what his or her position or his or 
her life may be, is secure from its loathsome 
touch/' 

SCATHING CONDEMNATIONS OF THE MERCURY 
TREATMENT. 

Dr. Bennett says that " more than eighty 
thousand cases have been submitted to ex- 
periment, by means of which it has been 
perfectly established that syphilis is cured 
in a shorter time, and with less probability 
of producing secondary syphilis, by the sim- 
ple than by the mercurial method/ ' The 



218 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

same author further remarks : " The intensity 
of the disease in modern times has declined 
exactly in proportion as its treatment by 
mercury has diminished, and the disorder 
been left to follow its natural course." 

" For a long time it was believed that 
mercury is a specific for the syphilitic poison ; 
but the notion is not at the present time 
held by any respectable authority. It is 
admitted, moreover, that the horrible symp- 
toms of secondary syphilis have in many 
instances been, to say the least, greatly ag- 
gravated by this drug." — Joel Shaw, M. D. 

It is the opinion of many that a few doses 
of mercury, in some one of its many forms, 
will cure syphilis. This is a great error. 
Mercury, nor no other drug, has ever cured, 
or ever will cure, syphilis — or, for that mat- 
ter, any other disease. The use of mercury 
in this disease, instead of curing it, simply 
for a time prevents its outward manifesta- 
tion, and when the peculiar effect of the 
mercurial poison has weakened, the syphili- 
tic poison — more virulent and more destruc- 
tive than ever — again appears, making it 
m®T% iiffi@mlt tfeam tv@r f#r tie lif*°£*r«© &i 



SYPHILIS. 219 

the individual to get rid of it. Allowing 
two persons to have syphilis, one of them to 
be treated with mercury, and the other with- 
out mercury, or any treatment whatever, I 
would in the end much rather be the pos- 
sessor of the constitution of the individual 
who had used no mercury or other treatment 
than that of the one who had used mercury." 
— John Cowan, M. D. 

"The effect of mercury, in syphilis, was 
measured at one time," says Dr. Dunglison, 
"by the amount of saliva discharged. If 
the disease were of a certain duration, the 
patient must spit a quart ; if of longer, two 
quarts, and so on ; but now, since the con- 
viction of the practioner is, that salivation is 
rarely ever necessary, and that it is rather to 
be deplored — inasmuch as the increasing 
discharge exhausts and irritates, without 
being of itself beneficial— the practice has 
been abandoned ; and if we meet with ex- 
cessive ptyalism, it is generally in those who 
are easily aff ected by mercury, and in whom 
the affection supervenes rapidly, or in those 
whom the remedy has by accident been per- 
listed im fer a longer period tham was eom- 



220 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

templated. The books were formerly filled 
with descriptions of the horrible accidents 
induced by mercurial ptyalism, some of 
which the author has witnessed, an excessive 
sloughing, loss of teeth, caries of jaw-bones, 
protrusion of the tongue from the mouth, 
adhesions of the lips and cheeks, etc., with at 
times excessive febrile action, marasmus, 
and death." 



221 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



CAN SYPHILIS BE ENTIRELY 
CURED? 

SHOULD TAINTED PERSONS MARRY? 

" There is a great difference of opinion 
among physicians concerning the treatment 
and the curability of this disease. The emin- 
ent Prof. Van Buren, of New York, who 
has had a very extensive experience in the 
treatment of this affection, stated in our 
hearing, a few years ago, that he never 
dared to assure a patient that he was well, no 
matter how completely free from disease he 
might seem to be. Others claim to be able 
to affect a cure in nearly all cases. Mercury 
has been looked upon as the great antidote 
for syphilis ; but there are grounds for doubt- 
ing the efficacy of this drug/' — A. A. Kellogg 
M.I). 

Dr. Guernsey, the author of " Plain Talks 
on Avoided Subjects," may be regarded as a 



222 POWERS OP SUPERB MANHOOD. 

fair sample of those who believe that the 
disease can be thoroughly eradicated. In 
his book he says: " An experience of nearly 
forty years of the treatment of these cases in 
both sexes, has given me the power to know 
whereof I speak ; and I do declare that a very 
large percentage of these cases can be cured 
in a safe manner, and so perfectly cured, too, 
that there will be no danger of transmitting 
the infection to the offspring. I by no means 
stand alone in this statement ; many other 
physicians, after long years of experience, 
assert the same truth." 

" We once had a patient who, sixteen years 
before, had contracted syphilis. He was un- 
lucky enough to try first the drug schools, 
which treated him with mercury during all 
those years, and of course unsuccessfully. At 
the time of his application to us, he had 
large clusters of gummy tumors in three 
parts of his body. When told that plain 
water would cure him, he hesitated to rely 
on w r ater alone, as he could not understand 
how water could have the power to cure, 
where mercury had for sixteen long years 
failed. We cannot blame him, when medi- 



CAN SYPHILIS BE ENTIRELY CURED. 223 

cal men also fail to understand this simple 
truth. Considerable persuasion was required 
to induce him to give up the use of the mer- 
cury ; but we eventually succeeded, and after 
a treatment of two months the man was 
cured. Our system of cleansing, first soften- 
ed the gummy tumors ; then blood and pus 
passed away ; and finally the tumors grew 
more and more shallow, until they entirely 
closed up."— A.F. Reinhold, PL D., M. D. 

11 It is sometimes asked, in the case of per- 
sons who have had syphilis, how soon 
could they marry, without the chance of en- 
tailing the disease on their offspring, and it 
is a question rather difficult to decide. If the 
disease has not yet passed into the constitu- 
tional stage, and the reform plan of treat- 
ment here given be adopted and faithfully 
observed for two years, I think the system 
of a naturally strong person would in this 
time be entirely free from the taint of syphi- 
lis. If the disease has passed into the con- 
stitutional stage, and has in a measure de- 
stroyed parts of the body by ulceration, it 
may require for its total extinction the close 
and faithful observance of hygienic and re- 



224 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

form remedial measures for from five to 
eight years, and even then there might be 
doubts of its non-transmissibility," — John 
Cowan, M. D. 

"The drug schools in comparing gonorrhea 
and syphilis consider the latter the more 
serious of the two. They apply injections 
and internal drugs for gonorrhea, and local 
caustics and mercury for syphilis. Under 
the drug system, both forms of disease may 
be followed by the most terrible conse- 
quences. Syphilis, especially, is never radi- 
cally cured by drugs. By our natural 
methods we can absolutely and thoroughly 
cure fresh cases of either disease in a few 
days, and old cases in a few months. ,, — A. F. 
Reinhold, Ph.D., M.D. 

SYMPTOMS AND COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF 
THE DISEASE BY VARIOUS AUTHORITIES. 

"The primary stage is recognized by the 
appearance of the indurated or hard chancre, 
or ulcer, which usually begins as a pimple, and 
after several days develops into an inflamed, 
open ulcer or chancre, having a red circle. 
These sores may be attended by the swelled 



CAN SYPHILIS BE ENTIRELY CURED. 225 

groin or buboes, and after a few weeks both 
may yield to treatment and disappear, but 
this is the source of no intelligent comfort, 
for the serious trouble has only begun. 

u The secondary symptoms which follow, 
manifest themselves in a virulent attack of 
the disease upon the skin and mucous mem- 
brane. The secondary stage is reached at 
the end of a few weeks, usually three or 
four, or it may remain dormant for that 
many months. The attack now is upon the 
skin. Rashes, eruptions and sores appear 
upon the body. The glands inflame and 
gather. Shallow ulcers form upon the 
tongue and just back of the lips on the in- 
side of the mouth. The throat ulcerates, 
catarrh lays hold of the mucous chambers of 
the head; the stomach, the liver, and the in- 
ternal organs may be attacked. The hair is 
apt to loosen and fall out, the spirit becomes 
depressed, the brain may be involved, and 
imbecility, epilepsy and insanity may follow. 
These are some of the terrors and horrors of 
the secondary stage. The next is still worse, 

" In the tertiary stage the disease leaver 
the outer surfaces and attacks the bones, 



22« POWERS OF SUPERB MANH#§1. 

The early symptom is a severe pain like 
rheumatism, not at the joints, but between 
them, especially between the knee and the 
ankle and on the head. The pain is severe 
at night, and its victim often walks the floor, 
unable to lie down or sleep. The bones be- 
come brittle, and nature loses her power to 
heal. The nose is liable to be eaten away, 
and piece by piece, through great sores in 
the flesh, the bones slough and pass out, or 
they may weaken and break by a sudden 
strain."— Sylvanus Stall, D.D. 

"Syphilis has three distinct stages. The 
first is a local manifestion, known as chancre. 
Two or three weeks, or longer, after ex- 
posure, a small, hard, reddish pimple makes 
its appearance, usually upon the genitals, 
although cases have occurred in which the 
disease was contracted by kissing, when the 
chancre was formed upon the lip. The 
pimple increases in size for a few days, and 
finally ulcerates, and discharges slightly. It 
does not usually give much inconvenience, 
and is, in fact, not infrequently unnoticed. 
In this respect the chancre differs much from 
the chancroid, a very important distinction- 



CAN SYPHILIS BE ENTIRELY CURE©. 2fiT 

After a few days the glands of the groins 
become somewhat enlarged, although not 
very painful. After one to three months the 
secondary stage of the disease appears, as an 
eruption of red spots, which are followed b$ T 
pimples. After a time, larger pimples or 
pustules make their appearance, leaving be- 
hind them pock marks like those of small 
pox. Ulcers also appear in some cases. 
Simultaneously with the occurrence of the 
eruption, slightly raised spots of a whitish 
color, known as mucous patches, appear on 
the mucous membrane of the lips and tongue. 
A slight discharge arises from these patches, 
which is of a very contagious character. The 
patient also has sore throat, and often sore 
eyes, and after the general health has be- 
come considerably impaired, suffers greatly 
with pains in the head, arms, legs, breast, 
and particularly in the joints, though the 
pain is not confined to them as in rheuma- 
tism. Small swellings, known as nodes, 
which are tender on pressure, appear on the 
shins and other parts. 

"The above symptoms disappear after a 
few weeks, and the patient may seem to be 



228 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

well for several months or years ; but unless 
the disease has been properly treated, it is 
all the time at work in the system, and next 
makes its appearance in the deeper tissues, 
particularly in the bones and cartilages of 
the nose and skull. Not infrequently the 
nose is greatly disfigured, or even wholly 
destroyed. The liver, lungs, kidneys, heart 
and other internal organs, are also likely to 
be affected. No other disease makes such 
fearful ravages in the human constitution as 
this."— A. A. Kellogg, M.D. 

SYMPTOMS. 

" Symptoms. — These are of two kinds — the 
primary and the secondary. The primary 
symptoms consist of chancres, or ulcers, 
appearing most frequently on the genitals 
from the third to the tenth da}^ after infec- 
tion. These ulcers vary in character and 
appearance, according to the individual's 
constitution and the nature or virulence of 
the poison from which they originate. 
Bubo, or a painful swelling of the lymphatic 
vessel or gland of the groin, is also one of 
the primary symptoms of syphilis. In gen- 



CAN SYPHILIS BE ENTIRELY CURED. 229 

eral, the bubo ulcerates and breaks, and, in 
some cases, causes a tedious and trouble- 
some sore. It is a very painful affair. 

" The secondary symptoms occur usually 
in five or six weeks after the primary ; but 
sometimes earlier, and, in other instances, 
at a much later date— several months at 
least. For sometime before their appear- 
ance, the patient is generally thin and 
wan ; looks dispirited ; his eyes are heavy ; 
and he complains of want of sleep and of 
rheumatic pains. The skin and mucous 
membrane of the throat are generally the 
parts first affected — the symptoms consist- 
ing of eruptions of an obstinate character, 
and ulcers, which, as well as the latter, take 
on a variety of forms and appearances. The 
eyes are also very apt to become diseased ; 
but the most horrible phase of the affection 
is that of the bones. These often become 
extensively affected, and, indeed, as we may 
well say, rotten, causing an amount of suf- 
fering, more especially at night, which may 
well remind us of the fabled tortures of the 
damned."—/^/ Shaw, M. D. 



230 



Chapter XXXIV. 



TREATMENT ADVISED. 



"The more rational principle of treat- 
ment — the one now adopted by the more 
intelligent among practitioners — is not to 
look upon medicines as a specific for syph- 
ilis, but to adopt such means as are best 
calculated for the good of the constitution 
generally. 

" With regard to chancre, many are of 
opinion that if it can be removed at once on 
its appearance, the system is in great part 
saved from the venereal infection. It is 
customary to cauterize the sore as soon as 
it appears. Local wet compresses to the 
parts should be used unremittingly; the 
wet-sheet pack should, if possible, be used 
often, the diet should be strictly vegetable, 
and the whole management, both as regards 
the primary and the secondary symptoms. 



TREATMENT ^DVISED. 231 

should be such as is best calculated to 
urify and invigorate the body generally. 
The hunger-fasting cure is nowhere more 
applicable." — Joel Shaw, M. D. 

"According to. Prof. Hughes Bennett, 
M. D., F. R. S. E., President of the Royal 
Medical Society of Edinburgh, the mercurial 
treatment is being rapidly superseded by 
the * simple ' method, which consists in care- 
ful regulation of all the habits of the 
patient, good hygiene, avoidence of spices, 
condiments, meat, and all stimulating foods, 
and the use of tepid baths and other elimi- 
native treatment. Two or three full baths 
may be taken daily with advantage, unless 
the patient is very weak. The vapor, hot- 
air, Turkish, and Russian baths are also 
useful. The wet-sheet pack is a very ad- 
mirable remedy. Fomentations and tepid 
compresses should be applied to irritable 
parts. The patient should drink from one 
to two quarts of water daily. - By these 
means the poison may be eliminated from 
the system; while by the mercurial treat- 
ment, according to Dr. Bennett and several 
other eminent German physicians, the 



232 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

manifestation of the disease is only checked, 
thus merely delaying the expulsion of the 
poison from the system. 

"In order to be effectual, the treatment 
must be continued for months after the 
symptoms of the disease have disappeared, 
as the malady may appear even after the 
lapse of many years, and if not in the life- 
time of the transgressor, may appear in his 
posterity."— A. A. Kellog, M.D. 

" In the first stages, immediately the na- 
ture of the sore has been decided to be a 
chancre, the patient should look to the con- 
ditions and regulate his general system. If 
he uses tobacco and alcoholic liquors, he 
must discard them completely. He should 
avoid all gross and stimulating food, and 
all manner of spices and condiments, as 
well as tea, coffee and chocolate. He should 
confine his diet to the smallest possible 
quantity of ripe fruits, bread made from 
unbolted wheat flour, cracked corn, cracked 
wheat, etc., and pure water. This may seem 
a rigid and severe initial requirement in 
the treatment, but as it is the only possible 
way of assisting Nature to throw oil the 



TREATMENT ADVISED. 233 

poison, the patient must adopt it in full 
measure if a radical cure is earnestly desired. 
Next in importance to diet is bathing. Upon 
rising in the morning the patient should 
take a sitz bath, and at the same time a foot 
bath. The water in the sitz bath should be, 
at the commencement, of a tepid tempera- 
ture, and gradually lowered until it is cold 
— as cold as the patient can comfortably 
bear it. The water of the foot bath should 
be warm, and increased in temperature 
until it becomes hot. At the close of the 
bath it should never be neglected to dash 
cold water on the feet, or dip them for a 
moment into cold water. This sitz and foot 
bath should last from 15 to 30 minutes. 
Between 10 and 11 o'clock A. M. this hip and 
foot bath should be repeated, followed by a 
general bath of the whole body, given thor- 
oughly, effectually and rapidly. After dry- 
ing, through friction of the whole body by 
the hand, from 5 to 15 minutes by the 
patient, and, if convenient, assisted by an 
assistant; this should on no account be 
neglected. Should the sun shine, allow its 
rays to fall directly on the patient's nude 



234 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

body during the time of friction. Before 
going to bed, which should be at an early 
hour in the evening, the sitz bath should be 
repeated, with the addition that, before it is 
taken, cloths wet in hot water should be 
wrapped around the loins, half way down 
the thighs, and including the generative 
organs. These should be kept on until 
there is decided redness of the skin after 
taking them off, to be immediately f ollowed 
by the sitz bath, the water of which should 
be, as already mentioned, of a tepid tem- 
perature, and gradually increased during 
the bath to as low a temperature as the 
patient can bear and readily react after. 

" Abundant exercise — when possible, in 
open air — should always be had. 

" Great care must be employed in keeping 
surface sores perfectly clean, and all cloths, 
water, etc., used about them should be 
handled with great care, as the exuding 
virulent matter, even w T hen diluted, is cap- 
able, when brought into contact with any 
xbraded surface, of propagating the disease. 

"To entirely free the system of the 
disease, it may be necessary t© follow r up 



TREATMENT ADVISED. 235 

this line of treatment for years. Day after 
day, month after month, and year after 
year, the patient should never neglect to 
closely follow all the requirements necessary 
to the regaining of a clean, sweet, healthy 
body, free from the faintest syphilitic taint/' 
— / . H. Cowan, M. D. 

You will note a general agreement in the 
advice of the three physicians here quoted. 
They practically concur as to the method 
of treatment. Each advocate means that 
will tend to build up the general health and 
cleanse the system of the poison. 

For one occupied all day in some employ- 
ment, the following regime would be about 
the same as prescribed and no doubt be 
more satisfactorily followed. 

Five or ten minutes active exercise on 
rising, exercise to be followed by a thorough 
friction bath. Follow by a cold sitz bath. 
(See chapter on Bathing for description of 
sitz bath and Friction Bath.) Stay in the 
bath from 5 to 30 minutes. Exercise after 
coming out of the bath until warm before 
putting on underwear. After thoroughly 
warm dash water all over the body and put 
on underwear with skin wet, 



236 POWERS OF SUPERB MANHOOD. 

If buboes and chancre have appeared, 
wear cloths all day wet in salted water, 
over them in a pair of trunks as described in 
treatment for gonorrhea. Change and re- 
wet these cloths two or three times per day. 

Eat as little as you possibly can and live. 
Avoid all meats. 

Go without breakfast. Encourage appe- 
tite for fruit. 

If inclined to be full blooded take a steam 
or hot-air bath every day or two. 

Drink all the pure water you can without 
actual discomfort. 

Do not fail to take a long walk, with many 
deep breathing exercises, sometime during 
the day. 

If you could live on one very light meal 
per day, for a time, it will make beneficial 
results appear almost immediately. The 
less you eat the more quickly the taint can 
be permanently eliminated. 

Take a cold sitz bath at night, same as in 
the morning, warming the body before and 
afterwards with exercise. 

Arrange some wet cloths so they will re- 
main in direct contact with the ergans and 



TREATMENT ADVISED. 237 

the groin during the entire night. Wet a 
light blanket or a very heavy sheet in water, 
wring it out partially, then lay it on the bed 
and wrap it around your nude body immedi- 
ately on retiring. Put sufficient cover over 
this for warmth and sleep thus until morn- 
ing. 

Be very careful to breathe pure air at all 
times. Follow this treatment accurately and 
you will find it will cleanse the body of the 
syphilitic taint sooner than any other possi- 
ble means. 

You must not expect to have the same 
amount of energy when following this treat- 
ment as is usual, for the constant drain on 
the pores in this continuous water treatment 
tends to lessen the feeling of energy. But 
your system is being cleansed and that is the 
only object one should have who happens to 
be tainted with this disease. 



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